Develop Reference

Make a Server wait for input from two different controllers

I made a client-server application where the server has to send a list of emails to the client, which after load that into a ListView gives the possibility, through a menuBar, to delete them. In the client all these operations are made in the Data Model (I followed the MVC pattern). This is the server:
class ThreadedEchoHandler implements Runnable {
private Socket incoming;
private String nomeAccount = "";
public void run() {
try {
incoming = s.accept();
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Unable to accept requests");
}
contenutoTextArea.append("Connected from: " + incoming.getLocalAddress() + "\n");
textarea.setText(contenutoTextArea.toString());
try {
//PHASE 1: The server receives the email
try {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(incoming.getInputStream()));
nomeAccount = in.readLine();
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Not works");
}
//PHASE 2: I'm getting all the emails from the files
File dir = new File("src/server/" + nomeAccount);
String[] tmp = new String[100];
int i = 0;
for (File file : dir.listFiles()) {
if (file.isFile() && !(file.getName().equals(".DS_Store"))) {
try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file))) {
String line;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
tmp[i++] = line;
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Cannot read from file");
}
}
}
//PHASE 3: The server sends the ArrayList to the client
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(incoming.getOutputStream(), true);
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
out.println(tmp[j]); // send the strings to the client
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Cannot send the strings to the client");
}
//PHASE 4: Here I loop and wait for the client choise
BufferedReader in;
String op;
try {
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(incoming.getInputStream()));
while ((op = in.readLine()) != null) {
if (op.equals("Elimina")) {
String tmp = in.readLine();
File file = new File("src/server/" + nomeAccount + "/" + tmp + ".txt");
file.delete();
} else if (op.equals("Invia")) {
//...
} else {
//...
}
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Non so");
} finally {
try {
incoming.close();
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Cannot closing the socket");
}
}
}
}
These are the methods of the client:
public void loadData() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException, ParseException {
try {
s = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 5000);
ArrayList<Email> email = new ArrayList<Email>();
DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
Date data;
/* PHASE 1: The client sends a string to the server */
//try {
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(s.getOutputStream(), true);
out.println(account); // send the account name to server
/* PHASE 2: The client receives the ArrayList with the emails */
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(s.getInputStream()));
String line;
String message[] = new String[5];
for (int j=0; (line = in.readLine()) != null;) {
message[j++] = line;
if (j==5) {
data = format.parse(message[3]);
email.add(new Email((Integer.parseInt(message[0])), message[1], account, message[2], message[4], data));
j=0;
}
}
//Casting the arrayList
emailList = FXCollections.observableArrayList(email);
//Sorting the emails
Collections.sort(emailList, (Email o1, Email o2) -> {
if (o1.getData() == null || o2.getData() == null) {
return 0;
}
return o1.getData().compareTo(o2.getData());
});
/*} finally {
s.close();*/
//}
} catch (SocketException se) {
emailList.setAll(null, null);
}
}
public void deleteMail(Email da_elim) throws IOException {
int id_del = da_elim.getID();
emailList.remove(da_elim);
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(s.getOutputStream(), true);
out.println("Elimina");
out.println(id_del);
}
The PHASE 1, 2, 3 of the Server are for the upload of the emails, and work with the loadData() method. Without the PHASE 4 the program works. Now, if I write that loop, the GUI of the client doesn't load and I cannot press on the DELETE button (which should make the input to innescate something (in this the elimination of the file) into that loop. Why the client doesn't load even if they are two different threads? And why without that loop it works?
EDIT: with the Listener class implemented but still doesn't works
//PHASE 4: Here I loop and wait for the client choise
BufferedReader in;
String op;
try {
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(incoming.getInputStream()));
/*while ((op = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("OP: " + op);
if (op.equals("Elimina")) {
String tmp = in.readLine();
contenutoTextArea.append("Ho eliminato la mail ").append(tmp).append(" \n");
textarea.setText(contenutoTextArea.toString());
File file = new File("src/server/" + nomeAccount + "/" + tmp + ".txt");
file.delete();
}
}*/
Listener lis = new Listener(in, new LinkedBlockingQueue<String>());
lis.run();
System.out.println("bbbbb");
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Unable to read messages");
} finally {
try {
incoming.close();
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Cannot close the socket");
}
}

I think you should run jvisualvm (it's a tool installed with jdk in /bin/ location of your jdk) and look for that Thread lifecycle you create on server. Also check if your Thread don't go through the code and just ends his life skipping waiting for client.
Is this Thread somehow connected with client? Because you cannot run client App. Are they separated? Another think that came to my mind is using
Platform.runLater(()->{
});
if your client GUI is in JavaFX. Use it if you are creating GUI, changing values in fields and anything you do on your GUI. Maybe your server is waiting for user response and after that GUI is built? Which causes that you can't press DELETE button.

I'm not currently able to comment, so I can't ask for clarification, but I think I'm correctly interpreting what's wrong. "The program hangs when it enters a loop that waits for input from two controllers". Assuming I got that part right, the most likely culprit would be that buffered reader is hanging indefinitely because its not receiving input. When I first ran into this issue, I threw it inside its own "receiver" class and used a Queue to bus over anything it received to a loop in my main class. my code looked something like this:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
public class Listener implements Runnable
{
private BufferedReader br;
private BlockingQueue<String> q;
private boolean shouldClose = false;
public Listener(BufferedReader br, BlockingQueue<String> q)
{
this.q = q;
this.br = br;
}
public void run()
{
loop();
System.out.println("listener has stopped");
}
public void loop()
{
String line = "";
try
{
while((line = br.readLine()) != null && !shouldClose)
{
q.put(line);
}
}
catch (IOException | InterruptedException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void shutdown()
{
shouldClose = true;
}
}
apologies if I've misunderstood in any way, or missed something in your code.

Android client/server application - proper way to receive messages continously

I'm trying to make a client/server application using an Android phone as a client using AsyncTask to send messages from UI.
I've written some very basic implementation just to test the connection and the way that messages are received / sent and I found a very big problem.
The client part seems to work fine..from my perspective. But the server part is the problem. I can't make the server reading and displaying messages countinously from the client.
I tried something like while(line = (in.readLine()) != null) {} but it doesn't seems to work.
After I sent my first word from the client, the server reads null and it stops.
Can someone show me a proper way to keep the server running while the client is not sending nothing?
I'd like to avoid using while(true) if it's not 100% necessary.
Here is the implementation until now:
Server:
public class SocketServerThread extends Thread {
private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(SocketServerThread.class);
private static final int SERVER_PORT_NUMBER = 5000;
#Override
public void run() {
try {
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(SERVER_PORT_NUMBER);
serverSocket.setReuseAddress(true);
log.info("Waiting for connection...");
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
log.info("Connected! Receiving message...");
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
try {
while (true) {
String line = in.readLine();
if (line != null) {
log.info(line);
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
log.error("Unexpected exception while sending / receiving messages.");
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
in.close();
clientSocket.close();
serverSocket.close();
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Client:
public class MyAsyncTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, String> {
private static final String TAG = "MyAsyncTask";
private static final String SERVER_IP_ADDRESS = "10.0.2.2";
private static final int SERVER_PORT_NUMBER = 5000;
private PrintWriter out;
#Override
protected String doInBackground(String... params) {
String message = "";
try {
InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(SERVER_IP_ADDRESS);
Log.d(TAG, "Connecting...");
Socket socket = new Socket(address, SERVER_PORT_NUMBER);
try {
out = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(socket.getOutputStream())), true);
Log.d(TAG, "I/O created");
message = params[0];
if (!message.equals("stop")) {
sendMessage(message);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
out.flush();
out.close();
socket.close();
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return message;
}
private void sendMessage(String message) {
if (out != null && !out.checkError()) {
out.println(message);
out.flush();
Log.d(TAG, "Sent message: " + message);
}
}
#Override
protected void onPostExecute(String s) {
super.onPostExecute(s);
Log.d(TAG, "onPostExecute(), s: " + s);
}
Thank you.

The problem is that your BufferedReader only read the first input stream. In order to receive the text after that, you have to re-read the input stream. I do it by recreating the socket when I am done reading, so that I can read next coming data. I am using the following code in my app. You can use this
private ServerSocket serverSocket;
public static final int SERVERPORT = 5000;
Thread serverThread = null;
public void startSocketServer(){
this.serverThread = new Thread(new ServerThread());
this.serverThread.start();
}
public void stopSocket(){
if(serverSocket != null){
try{
serverSocket.close();
}
catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
class ServerThread implements Runnable {
public void run() {
Socket socket = null;
try {
Log.wtf(TAG,"Socket: New Socket");
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(SERVERPORT);
if(serverSocket == null){
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
startSocketServer();
}
});
return;
}
while (!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted() && !serverSocket.isClosed()) {
try {
socket = serverSocket.accept();
Log.wtf(TAG,"Socket: Accepting");
CommunicationThread commThread = new CommunicationThread(socket);
new Thread(commThread).start();
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.wtf(TAG,"Socket: Error");
e.printStackTrace();
}
if(Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()){
Log.wtf(TAG, "Thread Interrupted");
}
if(serverSocket.isClosed()){
Log.wtf(TAG, "serverSocket closed");
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
class CommunicationThread implements Runnable {
private Socket clientSocket;
public CommunicationThread(Socket clientSocket) {
this.clientSocket = clientSocket;
log.info("Connected! Receiving message...");
try {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
try {
while (true) {
String line = in.readLine();
if (line != null) {
log.info(line);
}
else
break;//This will exit the loop and refresh the socket for next data
}
} catch (Exception e) {
log.error("Unexpected exception while sending / receiving messages.");
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally {
in.close();
clientSocket.close();
}
refreshSocket();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public void refreshSocket(){
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
stopSocket();
startSocketServer();
}
});
}
Just call startSocketServer() to start the server socket in your code.

InputStream is not working properly

I am a beginner in android. I am trying to work on Sockets. But my InputStream is not reading the data as expected. It is getting out of the method after j = inputStream.read(arrayOfByte, 0, i); Please help me.
public void readinputstreamforid(final String ip, final int port){
AsyncTask asyncTask = new AsyncTask() {
#Override
protected Object doInBackground(Object[] objects) {
try {
socket=new Socket(ip,port);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
final byte[] arrayOfByte = new byte[10000];
InputStream inputStream = null;
try {
inputStream = socket.getInputStream();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
while (socket.isConnected()) {
int j = 0;
int i = arrayOfByte.length;
try {
j = inputStream.read(arrayOfByte, 0, i);
if (j == -1)
throw new IOException("not working");
if (j == 0)
continue;
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
final String strData = new String(arrayOfByte, 0, j).replace("\r", "").replace("\n", "");
Log.d("hello","recieved: "+strData);
}
try {
IOUtils.write("!##\n",socket.getOutputStream());
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
};
asyncTask.execute();
}

If an error happens, you are logging it, but then you continue with the code, where more errors can then happen. When an error happens, STOP looping and exit the function. InputStream.read() returns -1 when the end of the stream is reached. For a socket, that means when the connection is closed. That is not really an error condition, so you don't need to throw an exception. Just break the loop. You can wrap the InputStream inside of a BufferedReader so you can use its readLine() method instead of reading bytes manually.
Also, you are trying to write to the socket's OutputStream after the socket has already disconnected. That will never work.
Try something more like this:
public void readinputstreamforid(final String ip, final int port){
AsyncTask asyncTask = new AsyncTask() {
#Override
protected Object doInBackground(Object[] objects) {
try {
socket = new Socket(ip, port);
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
OutputDataStream out = socket.getOutputStream();
do {
String data = in.readLine();
if (data == null)
break;
Log.d("hello", data);
IOUtils.write("!##\n", out, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
}
while (true);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
};
asyncTask.execute();
}

Can someone help me with understanding how servers work in java in the following code

this is a simple chat server and client i got from a book i've been reading and I'm having trouble understanding some of the code, can someone please help me with this problem
this is the client code here
public class ChatClient {
JTextArea incoming;
JTextField outgoing;
BufferedReader reader;
PrintWriter writer;
Socket sock;
public static void main(String[] args) {
ChatClient client = new ChatClient();
client.go();
}
public void go() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
incoming = new JTextArea(15, 50);
incoming.setLineWrap(true);
incoming.setWrapStyleWord(true);
incoming.setEditable(false);
JScrollPane qScroller = new JScrollPane(incoming);
qScroller
.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
qScroller
.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
outgoing = new JTextField(20);
JButton sendButton = new JButton("send");
sendButton.addActionListener(sendButtonListener);
mainPanel.add(qScroller);
mainPanel.add(outgoing);
mainPanel.add(sendButton);
setUpNetworking();
Thread readerThread = new Thread(new IncomingReader());
readerThread.start();
frame.add(mainPanel);
frame.setSize(400, 500);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
private void setUpNetworking() {
try {
sock = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 5000);
InputStreamReader streamReader = new InputStreamReader(
sock.getInputStream());
reader = new BufferedReader(streamReader);
writer = new PrintWriter(sock.getOutputStream());
System.out.println("connected");
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
ActionListener sendButtonListener = new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
writer.println(outgoing.getText());
writer.flush();
outgoing.setText("");
outgoing.requestFocus();
}
};
public class IncomingReader implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
String message;
try {
while ((message = reader.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("read " + message);
incoming.append(message + "\n");
}
System.out.println("ggggggggg");
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
the part that I'm having trouble understanding is this one:
public void run() {
String message;
try {
while ((message = reader.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("read " + message);
incoming.append(message + "\n");
}
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
in this part there is while code that is running as long as what we read from the server is not Null, my questions is won't the first thing that we read from the server as soon as we start the thread would be Null since we haven't written any thing to it yet, thus, breaking out of the loop?
like when would message equals Null?
this is the server code to whome ever wants to read it
public class ChatServer {
ArrayList clientOutputStreams;
public class ClientHandler implements Runnable {
BufferedReader reader;
Socket sock;
public ClientHandler(Socket clientSocket) {
try {
sock = clientSocket;
InputStreamReader isReader = new InputStreamReader(
sock.getInputStream());
reader = new BufferedReader(isReader);
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void run() {
String message;
try {
while ((message = reader.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("read " + message);
tellEveryone(message);
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ChatServer().go();
}
public void go() {
clientOutputStreams = new ArrayList();
try {
ServerSocket serverSock = new ServerSocket(5000);
while (true) {
Socket clientSocket = serverSock.accept();
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(
clientSocket.getOutputStream());
clientOutputStreams.add(writer);
Thread t = new Thread(new ClientHandler(clientSocket));
t.start();
System.out.println("got a connection");
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void tellEveryone(String message) {
Iterator it = clientOutputStreams.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
try {
PrintWriter writer = (PrintWriter) it.next();
writer.println(message);
writer.flush();
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
a way that would be more logical to me would be having a while true loop and checking the server all the time waiting for a message like this:
while(true){
if ((message = reader.readLine()) != null){
System.out.println("read " + message);
incoming.append(message + "\n");
}
}

won't the first thing that we read from the server as soon as we start the thread would be Null since we haven't written any thing to it yet
I think you've answered your own question, in part. null is returned from BufferedReader#read when it reaches the EOF, so, since EOF marker hasn't been reached, the read method will block until either there is something to be read or EOF is reached.
From the JavaDocs...
public String readLine()
throws IOException
Reads a line of text. A line is considered to be terminated by any one of a line feed ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), or a carriage return followed immediately by a linefeed.
Returns:
A String containing the contents of the line, not including any line-termination > characters, or null if the end of the stream has been reached
The loop is actually infinite. The only way this will break is if the underlying stream is closed, which is likely to cause an IOException
What book did you get this from? It's not a very good example

Program stop working when try to read input stream

I have a Java Server and one(or more) Android Clients. For now I want them to communicate simply with strings. When i write from android I can get the data in Java Server, but when I try to get the answer from server the Android application stop working. The codes is reported below:
Java Server:
public class Server {
private static int port=12346, maxConnections=0;
// Listen for incoming connections and handle them
public static void main(String[] args) {
int i=0;
try{
ServerSocket listener = new ServerSocket(port);
Socket server;
while((i++ < maxConnections) || (maxConnections == 0)){
doComms connection;
server = listener.accept();
String end = server.getInetAddress().toString();
System.out.println("\n"+end+"\n");
doComms conn_c= new doComms(server);
Thread t = new Thread(conn_c);
t.start();
}
} catch (IOException ioe) {
System.out.println("IOException on socket listen: " + ioe);
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
class doComms implements Runnable {
private Socket server;
private String line,input;
public doComms(Socket server) {
this.server=server;
}
#SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
public void run () {
input="";
try {
// Get input from the client
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream (server.getInputStream());
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(
new OutputStreamWriter(server.getOutputStream())),
true);
while((line = in.readLine()) != null && !line.equals(".")) {
input=input + line;
}
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, input);
out.println("Enviado");
server.close();
} catch (IOException ioe) {
System.out.println("IOException on socket listen: " + ioe);
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
And Android client's code (it's called every time a button is pressed inside onClick method):
public String enviaMensagem(){
String resposta="";
new Thread(new ClientThread()).start();
Socket socket = null;
DataOutputStream dataOutputStream = null;
DataInputStream dataInputStream = null;
try {
socket = new Socket(ip, port);
dataOutputStream = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
dataInputStream = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
dataOutputStream.writeUTF(input.getText().toString());
resposta = dataInputStream.readUTF();
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally{
if (socket != null){
try {
socket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
if (dataOutputStream != null){
try {
dataOutputStream.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
if (dataInputStream != null){
try {
dataInputStream.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return resposta;
}

You are using an unsorted mixture of readUTF(), writeUTF(), readLine(), etc. They're not all interoperable. Settle on one of them. If you use writeUTF() you must use readUTF() at the other end. If you use readLine() you must write lines at the other end, with a line terminator such as \r\n or \n.