Mqtt Check if a client is online or offline - java

I am using mqtt and mosquito broker to build a simple instant chat for an android platform. Now I wanted to implement a condition where any client can check if another client is online.
I know about Last will and testament but I wanted a user to be detected offline only wen the application is inactive or the user is not currently using the app.
I actually dnt need any code, buh wanted an idea as to how to implement this and I would be much grateful.

You can do this without relying on MQTT internals which is much easier in my view. With this approach, you have much more control over what is going on:
The client can periodically send a message within another topic to inform the server of its availability. In case the server does not receive that message after a specified amount of time, it can assumed that it is offline.
The client can also send another message if the user logs out and inform the server a well.
If you insist on using MQTT internal structure, you may find this question useful:
How to Find Connected MQTT Client Details

Related

Java Server for Android Application

I need to write a server in java that will store integers that are used as stats for my android app. My app has an SQLite database that is already setup that would be useful if I could just pass those contents to the server. I need to do this so that in my multiplayer feature, a player's app will contact the server to know what level their opponent is. (This is not real time). So far I only have a TCP server that opens a client and server socket. Other than that I am not positive what I need to do to make it possible for the server to do what I need. Anyone have suggestions or good tutorials to help me with my problem?
Thanks.
One thing you need to keep track of:
Your SQLite DB has to be used as a player session, until the player logs in as another user. To do this, you have to have one instance of the current logged in player. If you prefer other methods, here's a good list.
I don't think you would need a TCP connection to view the stats, instead implement a REST API in PHP or any other language for back-end that would save, update and look up for a particular player. This is a recommended method. If you are familiar with PHP, this tutorial will give you an idea and full details of what I mean.
Indeed, building a server has many methods. For example, You can use either socket programming or app-server. If you are familiar with web programming, jsp/php/asp.net, you can communicate between your app and server with HTTP requset, which is easy to do.
To be more specific, someone (neme:abc,password:pwd) logging in with your mutiplayer app, when he or she leaves, send the data to server with HTTP request. Then when he or she logging in with other device, you can get the data from status and continues to play. Of course, you can save the data in local with SharedPrefence in Android, too.
By the way, the apache HTTPClient is recommend when using http connection with server.

Manage Topics on Mosquitto

I want to develop a simple push notification system for various android devices.
After two days of documentation i've found very interesting to use MQTT protocol.
System needs:
- an MQTT client on Android: eclipse Paho seems to be a good solution
- any MQTT broker you like for the server part: my attention is on Mosquitto cause is Open-Source
I've read documentation and the configuration file and seemed clear. The only thing that I couldn't understand is if i can manage topics (where clients subscribe to). In particular if i can create topics and how to.
Thanks.
It's not clear whether you mean on the client side or the broker side...
Assuming you mean the broker side, you don't need to create topics, they are created automatically as needed. You can control what clients have access to what topics using the built in authentication and ACL code, or you could use an authentication and access plugin. Writing your own is quite easy, or you could use the excellent https://github.com/jpmens/mosquitto-auth-plug
On the client side, simply subscribing or publishing to a topic is sufficient to create it on the broker, assuming you have permissions for that topic. This may not be the case in all MQTT implementations.
As an example, try subscribing to the # topic on test.mosquitto.org or iot.eclipse.org. These show a huge range of available topics and there is no admin to support them in the background.
This basically means that the only administrative load you have is restricting access on the broker where required.
Using code stole from somewhere, I made a pretty simple "MQTTMessenger" app for Android. https://bitbucket.org/mjgasner/mqttmessenger
From what I remember, you'll need to go into src/com/gasner/mqttmessenger/MessengerService.java
and change the host ip to the ip of your MQTT server.
For the MQTT server, I used Mossquitto server.
You'll also have to make sure you port forward port 1883 to the server.
I used this to send stock numbers to my phone. It's been almost 2 years ago, otherwise I could tell you more.
The C2DM directory is unrelated. It is Google's push notification service that I was also playing with at the time.
In the other directories at Bitbucket https://bitbucket.org/mjgasner are the .NET service and winforms app I wrote to communicate with the MQTT server. The service would accept the message from the android app through the server and reply with the stock amount it pulled from google's api.
If you have any more questions, comment below.

Create a basic network app

I have a little question about an android app with a function "remote" use via internet.
So I have these ideas:
Create a webservice using php on the server, and refresh the client app all x time like 4-5 sec
Or make a java server (so I don't know how I can do that)
I just want make a remote connected via user/password to the server and the other app connect to the server and refresh his status.
Do you know the best way for do that?
Thanks
The question is not very precise, but as far as I understand it, both your ideas implement the 'pull' concept, that is the client app checking the status of the server every now and then.
If you want the app to be instantly notified of the server status change, I would suggest push notifications with GCM (Google Clound Messaging). You can find some basic descriptions and examples at: http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
Sending a server-to-client notification is simple regardless of the platform you use server side. E.g. for PHP integration with GCM, check out this thread: GCM with PHP (Google Cloud Messaging)

Check File in the server is change or not

I am trying to make an app that connect to the server.
The app is used by some devices.
If one of the devices upload something to the server, I would like other devices receive the notification about the server has something new.
My question is, how to check the server is change or not? How often we must check the server?
I wonder how the Online Messaging work, because someone send something, we receive the message ASAP
Is the concept can be use with my app?
Sounds like you want to take advantage of Google Could Messaging or GCM for short.
http://developer.android.com/guide/google/gcm/index.html
This could be a lightweight message telling the Android application that there is new data to be fetched from the server (for instance, a movie uploaded by a friend), or it could be a message containing up to 4kb of payload data (so apps like instant messaging can consume the message directly).
GCM is the standard for how your apps "talk" to your servers. Either for a message in it's entirety or just a message to go check the server because it's been updated.

Need clarification of LAN application concept

Recently i developed a simple chat application in java using sockets. It was working fine. But now i want to make an application which can communicate over the Local Area Networks like IPMSG. The features will be
message sending.
file sending.
voice chat.
group chat.
encryption/decryption on demand.
These were the basic features to be included.
Now the confusion i am facing over here is
The application is an peer to peer application in which one user can do anything what other users can do.
There is no centralized server and there in no client. Every node acts as a server and client both.
So the application has to be peer to peer. But when i googled it then i am getting samples like client-server only and when i talk to my peers regarding this then also they suggest me the client-server model but there is no justification for why client-server and why not peer to peer. Am i right in this case ? Can anyone please guide me in this case because once i start development on any of these concept i cannot revert back due to time shortage. Your suggestions are most welcome.
I think the main reason a server-client relation is advised, is to make it easier for logging, or make a large chatroom for everyone (like IRC). If there is a login required, the server would also verify the login details. So without a server in between, phishing attacks would become more difficult to deal with.
I don't see why a P2P chat wouldn't work, though. If I recall correctly, Skype is doing that. I always love decentralizing. Good luck with your project. :)
You might want to check out the Zeroconf standard and packages that use it like Avahi (linux FOSS) or Bonjour (Apple & Windows open-source but not GPL). Zeroconf allows for configuration and detection of network services without user interaction or a central configuration server.
I end up using a client server model modified to support to P2P networking. When a node comes into the network it broadcasts its presence and the other nodes are continuously listening for new nodes. Each node will have their own list for the connected nodes in the network. In case of new node coming into the network they will update their own lists. I am using UDP for all most all the operations except file transfer as it needs to be in TCP.

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