Communication between Client and Server using Sockets - java

Okay this is a revised question from earlier today, I have included code to help explain the problem. I am sending two messages from the client to the server. The server then picks the messages up and processes them. The server finally attempts to send a message back to the client(please note in the server code "testmessage"), it is here I am having problems. Either I am not recieving the message at the client side or sending it incorrectly from the server side.
public class ClientConnection {
String address, language, message;
int portNumber;
Socket clientSocket = null;
public ClientConnection(String lan, String mes, String add, int pn) throws IOException{
address = add;
portNumber = pn;
language = lan;
message = mes;
}
public String createAndSend() throws IOException{
// Create and connect the socket
Socket clientSocket = null;
clientSocket = new Socket(address, portNumber);
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(clientSocket.getOutputStream(),true);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
// Send first message - Message is being correctly received
pw.write(language+"\n");
pw.flush();
// Send off the data
// Send the second message - Message is being correctly received
pw.write(message);
pw.flush();
pw.close();
// Send off the data
// NOTE: Either I am not receiving the message correctly or I am not sending it from the server properly.
String translatedMessage = br.readLine();
br.close();
//Log.d("application_name",translatedMessage); Trying to check the contents begin returned from the server.
return translatedMessage;
}
Server Code:
public class ServerConnection {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// Delete - Using while loop to keep connection open permanently.
boolean status = false;
while( !status){
ServerSocket serverSocket = null;
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(4444);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Could not listen on port: 4444.");
System.exit(1);
}
Socket clientSocket = null;
try {
clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Accept failed.");
System.exit(1);
}
// Delete - Working as of here, connection is established and program runs awaiting connection on 4444
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
String language = br.readLine();
String message = br.readLine();
// Test - Works
System.out.println(language);
// Test - Works
System.out.println(message);
// Delete - Working as of here, both messages are passed and applied. Messages are received as sent from client.
TranslateMessage tm = new TranslateMessage();
String translatedMessage = tm.translateMessage(language, message);
// NOTE: This seems to be where I am going wrong, either I am not sending the message correctly or I am not receiving it correctly..
// PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(new BufferedOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream()));
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(clientSocket.getOutputStream(),true);
// Send translation back
System.out.println(translatedMessage);
// pw.write(translatedMessage+"\n");
pw.write("Return test"); // Test message!
pw.flush();
// Send off the data
pw.close();
br.close();
clientSocket.close();
serverSocket.close();
}
}
}
The code is a bit of a mess and I can see a few duplicates, I have commented where I feel the problems occour.
Thanks for any help!

You are using BufferedReader.readLine() to read the response from the server, but in the test case you are sending a string that is not terminated with a \n or \r\n, so it will not get the line as far as I can tell from the docs...
public String readLine()
throws IOException
Read 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
An additional suggestion...
When writing request response protocols like this I would not rely on line endings to terminate the requests or responses. Typically I would use either a fully formatted JSON string, or my preference is for a binary protocol where all requests and response are prepended with a binary count (usually 4 bytes bigendian/network byte order). Then the client and server reads the 4 bytes then reads the number of bytes that follow. This handles the packet fragmentation that typically happens over network connections, also it helps avoid DOS attacks by malicious users sending long strings that never terminate.
In Java you can use ByteBuffer.order() to handle bigendian numbers.

Related

Unresponsive socket read buffer

I am trying to send data to one of my servers and receive an ACK back from it. However, the processing gets hung up when waiting for a response from the server. I know for a fact that there is a connection because I can see the data reaching the server. I also know that the server is outputting data correctly because my C# client is receiving data back from the server. I will note that this client is running on a centOS virtual machine. The server is a remote windows machine. I wouldn't imagine that there would be an issue due to the virtual environment because I am able to use an SNMP java client (SNMP4j package) to make calls to a remote server. I believe my server is outputting raw binary too, but I would expect to see some kind of output either way.
// A Java program for a Client
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
public class Client
{
// initialize socket and input output streams
private Socket socket = null;
private DataInputStream input = null;
private DataOutputStream out = null;
private DataInputStream serveroutput= null;
// constructor to put ip address and port
public Client(String address, int port)
{
// establish a connection
try
{
socket = new Socket(address, port);
System.out.println("Connected");
// takes input from terminal
input = new DataInputStream(System.in);
// sends output to the socket
out = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
serveroutput = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
}
catch(UnknownHostException u)
{
System.out.println(u);
}
catch(IOException i)
{
System.out.println(i);
}
// string to read message from input
String line = "";
// keep reading until "Over" is input
while (!line.equals("Over"))
{
try
{
line = input.readLine();
out.writeUTF(line);
System.out.println(serveroutput.readLine())
}
catch(IOException i)
{
System.out.println(i);
}
}
// close the connection
try
{
input.close();
out.close();
socket.close();
}
catch(IOException i)
{
System.out.println(i);
}
}
Could be great if you would share the otherside codes. (sorry cannot comment yet)
Try use something else over writeUTF(), simply maybe a PrintStream, as mentioned by #marquis-of-lorne (read|write)UTF may be confusing by the peer.
Also this might be a good practice to flush() out the output from both side when there is nothing else to send to make sure data is sent completely.
You may also try BufferedReader over InputDataStream as you are trying to read lines. readLine() from InputDataStream is deprecated.

How to process and decode incoming bytes from a TCP server

I am currently working on a Java console application. It is run through the command prompt, connects to a server application coded in python and communicates with that server over TCP. My application sends "ISND" string to server which it accepts and in return server sends three images. The format in which Images are sent in is
Where "<"">" are not actually included. "ISND" is encoded into bytes using ascii. Size is the size of the image converted into bytes from int and it is always composed of 3 bytes regardless of the size of the image. For each individual image, a message in this format is sent.
I have been using BufferedReader to read server responses but at this point, I am at a loss on how to actually handle this message. I searched for ways to separate the incoming message into components since I know the length of the first two parts which are always fixed yet I couldn't find a way to actually accomplish that goal.
It has come to the point it feels like I am smashing my head into a wall. As such, I need advice from anyone that is more familiar with Java and Socket programming on how to handle this issue.
My current code
public class ImageLabeler {
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
String IP = args[0];
System.out.println(IP + "\n");
String port = args[1];
System.out.println(port + "\n");
Socket clientSocket;
DataOutputStream outToServer = null;
BufferedReader inFromServer = null;
String serverResponse;
try {
clientSocket = new Socket(IP, Integer.parseInt(port));
outToServer = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
inFromServer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
System.out.println("Connection success\n");
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Connection failed\n");
System.exit(0);
}
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(outToServer, true);
try {
//outToServer.writeBytes("USER bilkentstu\\n");
//outToServer.flush();
//System.out.println("check\n");
writer.println("USER bilkentstu");
serverResponse = inFromServer.readLine();
System.out.println(serverResponse + "\n");
writer.println("PASS cs421f2019");
//outToServer.writeBytes("PASS cs421f2019\\r\\n");
//outToServer.flush();
serverResponse = inFromServer.readLine();
System.out.println(serverResponse + "\n");
writer.println("IGET");
//This is where I need to handle the incoming Image messages.
writer.println("EXIT");
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(ImageLabeler.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
System.exit(0);
}
}
Don't use buffered reader. You need to write the code reading a string from the InputStream of the socket one byte at a time.

Read multiple lines using BufferedReader (Socket)

I already read some threads here on stackoverflow, also some tutorials, but I don't find a solution to my problem.
I have Java client which connects to a server, then sends exactly one line to the server, and I get 2 or 3 lines as a response.
Here is my code:
public static void main(String[] args) {
String message;
String response;
try {
BufferedReader inFromUser = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(System.in));
Socket clientSocket = new Socket(hostname, port);
DataOutputStream outToServer = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
BufferedReader inFromServer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
message = inFromUser.readLine();
outToServer.writeBytes(message + '\n');
// here my program "freezes"
while ((response = inFromServer.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("response: " + response);
}
clientSocket.close();
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
System.out.println("Unknown Host");
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("IO Exception");
}
}
My problem is, I can read every line of the response, but my program won't exit. The line clientSocket.close(); gets never called. What am I doing wrong?
Presumably your server isn't closing the connection - therefore the underlying stream for the reader isn't closed... at any point the server could send more information. readLine() only returns null when the stream has been closed, i.e. there will definitely not be any more data.
Now we don't know anything about the protocol here, but if the expected behaviour is that the client won't send any more information, and the server will close the connection, then the bug is in the server. If the protocol states that the server will keep the connection open, then the bug is in your client code and you need to work out how to detect the end of data (or send some sort of ack that will cause the server to close the connection, or whatever).

How to handle sending multiple messages over a socket connection?

I'm a bit of a beginner programmer so it's possible this is quite obvious and I'm overlooking the answer. But on to the question.
I have a two-part program (its a little more complicated than this example, but the situation is the same). The program has multiple messages fired between the client and the server. I have a PrintWriter on the server-side to send messages to the client, and on the client, I have a BufferedReader to read the messages sent.
When this example is run, I'm given two lines as output. The first message is both messages, and the second is NULL. What I am wondering is if there is a way to basically halt the server until I am ready for the second message, so that I can do something on the client-side before the second message is sent.
I am hoping to not use Thread.Sleep, as I would rather the Server wait around until the Client says it is ready.
This is the client:
public class Client{
public void run(){
Socket socket = null;
InputStream in = null;
BufferedReader reader = null;
try{
socket = new socket("LocalHost",1234);
in = socket.getInputStream();
reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
}
String messageFromServer = "";
try{
messageFromServer=reader.readLine();
}
System.out.println(messageFromServer);
String messageFromServer = "";
try{
messageFromServer=reader.readLine();
}
System.out.println(messagefromServer);
//close everything
}
}
This is the server:
public class Server{
public void run(){
ServerSocket server = null;
Socket client = null;
try{
server = new ServerSocket(1234);
client = server.accept();
}
PrintWriter writer = null;
OutputStream out = null;
try{
out = client.getOutputStream();
writer = new PrintWriter(out, true);
}
writer.write("Hi I'm a server");
//do some stuff that takes some time, user input, etc. etc.
writer.write("I'm still a server");
//close everything
}
Thanks :)
The problem with the way you currently have you code is the fact that you are using a BufferedReader, but the server is not terminating it's messages with a new line.
When you close the writer, the client is reaching the EOF or EOS and unblocking the read so it appears that both strings are being sent at once...
If you do something like...
writer.write("Hi I'm a server\n");
// This will force the message to be written to the client and picked up ;)
writer.flush();
writer.write("I'm still a server\n");
writer.flush();
Then you will get the messages seperatly...
You can use ObjectInputStream to read Objects instead of Strings.
This way you will read only one Message(String in your case) every call to ObjectInputStream.readObject();
BTW you can read the first message, "do something" and then read the second message. you don't have to read all of the sent messages at once.
If there are no other messages, then your thread will be blocked when trying to read an object from the ObjectInputStream.
Use it like:
ObjectInputStream inputStream = new ObjectInputStream( socket.getInputStream() )

Sending packets over TCP socket

I'm writing this tiny utility method to test sending raw packets to a specific messaging network (planning on developing a client to connect to it).
The network is the Deviantart messaging network (chat.deviantart.com:3900; TCP).
My class:
protected void connect() throws IOException{
Socket dAmn = null;
//BufferedWriter out = null;
PrintWriter out = null;
BufferedReader in = null;
/*
* Create Socket Connection
*/
try{
dAmn =
new Socket("chat.deviantart.com", 3900);
/*out =
new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(dAmn.getOutputStream()));*/
out =
new PrintWriter(dAmn.getOutputStream(), true);
in =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(dAmn.getInputStream()));
}
catch(SocketException e){
System.err.println("No host or port for given connection");
//handle
}
catch(IOException e){
System.err.println("I/O Error on host");
//handle
}
String userInput;
BufferedReader userIn =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
/*
* dAmn communication
*/
while((userInput = userIn.readLine()) != null){
out.write(userInput);
System.out.println(in.readLine());
}
if(in!=null)
in.close();
if(out!=null)
out.close();
if(dAmn!=null)
dAmn.close();
}
The server requires a handshake to be sent before the login may proceed. A typical login packet looks like thus:
dAmnclient damnClient (currently 0.3)
agent= agent
Every packet must end with a newline and a null.
My handshake packet would look something like:
dAmnClient 0.3\nagent=SomeAgent\n\0
However the server simply replies with disconnect
I think something is incorrectly being parsed, any advice? Also, if you're super intersted in helping me out: here's some quick documentation on the client -> server dAmn protocol:
http://botdom.com/wiki/DAmn#dAmnClient_.28handshake.29
You should use Wireshark
With Wireshark you can sniff traffic from/to hosts. It makes it really easy to spot where your application does something else than the standard client.
BTW you have a \n in front of agent=, it might be the problem
The line read from the user will not contain the actual line termination, and it will not contain any null-termination either. Typing \n at the input will actually transmit "\n" rather than a new-line.
You could add a new-line by replacing write with println (careful, it may use \n, \r\n or just \r depending on platform):
out.println(userInput);
You could support packet termination e.g. by checking for a specific user input, like so:
if (userInput.equals(".")) {
out.write((char) 0);
out.flush();
} else {
out.println(userInput);
}
The user can now terminate packets by typing a dot.
(Actually the code could perform the handshake automatically without waiting for user input, but that's another story.)

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