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Java can't get a continuous reading/writing to a socket

I'm studying electronic engineering but for my internship I've been asked to make a program that must communicate via a socket to a certain ip and port. The program has a main class which is the GUI and I made another class for the connection which runs parallel using a Thread. The problem is that when I click the "Connect" button that I have on my GUI, it only receives or sends once the data, despite having a while loop. To further receive and send data I must spam-click my connect and disconnect button.
public class ConnectionSocket implements Runnable {
private final int port;
private final String ipAddr;
private final Observer observador;
private DataInputStream in;
private DataOutputStream out;
private Socket sc = null;
private boolean inputAvailable = false;
public boolean lastInput = false;
private String nextOutputMessage;
private boolean disconnect=false;
private Observable observable;
public ConnectionSocket(String ip, int p , Observer panel) {
this.ipAddr = ip;
this.port = p;
this.observador = panel;
}
#Override
public void run() {
this.observable = new Observable();
observable.addPropertyChangeListener(observador);
this.observable.notifyData("Message Connected");
System.out.print("\n**********************\nConectado\n**********************\n");
while (!disconnect) {
try {
try {
sc = new Socket(this.ipAddr , this.port);
}
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Socket TimeOut");
}
if(sc != null) {
out = new DataOutputStream(sc.getOutputStream());
in = new DataInputStream(sc.getInputStream());
}
while(!disconnect){
if (sc != null) {
try {
if(in.available() != 0) {
receiveData();
}
else {
inputAvailable = false;
}
}
catch(IOException ex) {
System.out.println("***Read or write error***");
System.out.println(ex.toString());
}
}
}
if ( sc != null ) {
try { sc.close(); }
catch ( IOException e ) {}
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(ConnectionSocket.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
//Close the socket
cutConnection();
System.out.print("\n**********************\nDesconectado\n**********************\n");
}
public void sendNewData(String msg) throws IOException { //this method receives data from the GUI//
nextOutputMessage = msg;
sendData();
}
private synchronized void sendData() throws IOException {
System.out.println("Panel: " + nextOutputMessage);
out.writeByte((byte) Integer.parseInt(nextOutputMessage));
}
private synchronized void receiveData() throws IOException {
if(!inputAvailable)System.out.print("CUBE: ");
inputAvailable = true;
while(in.available() != 0) {
byte dat = (byte) in.read();
this.observable.notifyData(Character.toString((char) dat));
System.out.print((char) dat);
}
}
public void cutConnection() {
try {
disconnect = true;
if(this.in != null) {
this.in.close();
}
if(this.out != null) {
this.out.close();
}
if(this.sc != null) {
this.sc.close();
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
this.sc = null;
}
}
}
I use two additional classes which use PropertyChangeListener to send the data received to the GUI, otherwise it just blocks it.
I receive and send data as ASCII code.
This is the method in the GUI class which starts the thread (the connection)
private void connect(String ip, int port) {
jButton_connect.setText("Desconectar");
labelMessage("Conectando...");
observerPanel = new Observer(this);
connection = new ConnectionSocket(ip , port, observerPanel);
Thread t = new Thread(connection);
t.start();
}
So basically I would appreciate any hint about what I'm doing wrong, because I can't really find any solution suitable for my needs. BTW any solution that includes getting rid of the double while loop would be great, as it consumes a lot of cpu in that point. Feel free to criticise any stupid thing I made because I had to learn java from zero to do this so it's probably not really good.
Thanks in advance
Edit 1: Does the sc = new Socket(this.ipAddr , this.port); sentence need to be called in the loop or once it's called it permanently bounds to that ip and port? I only need to connect to a specific ip and port. Thanks

Java - Multithread Server to serve multiple concurrent clients

I've been trying to make the code below to have multiple clients communicate with the same server.
Currently, it works one client at a time with the server but it seems to be that when the second client opens, code stops at new ObjectInputStream(connection.getInputStream()); in the Class 3 (client) - see below.
I've tried making the inputstream object transient to be shared in different threads but it didn't work, nor with making runClient method synchronized.
If I were to implement Serializable in the client class using serialVersionUID, how can I make multithreading work with the same server or is there any better way..?
Class 1 - server main
public class EchoServer {
private ServerSocket server;
private int portNum;
public static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 8081;
public EchoServer(int portNum) {
this.portNum = portNum;
}
public void runServer() {
System.out.println("Echo Server started...");
try {
server = new ServerSocket(portNum);
Socket connection = server.accept();
new Thread(new ClientHandler(connection)).run();
} catch(IOException ex) {
System.err.println("Error encountered! Port is likely already in use! Exiting program...");
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length > 0) {
(new EchoServer(Integer.parseInt(args[0]))).runServer();
} else {
(new EchoServer(DEFAULT_PORT)).runServer();
}
}
}
Class 2
public class ClientHandler implements Runnable {
private ObjectOutputStream output;
private ObjectInputStream input;
private String message;
/** Integer to hold the message number. */
private int messagenum;
private Socket connection;
public ClientHandler(Socket connection) {
this.connection = connection;
}
#Override
public void run() {
do{
handleRequest();
} while (true);
}
public void handleRequest() {
try {
output = new ObjectOutputStream(this.connection.getOutputStream());
input = new ObjectInputStream(this.connection.getInputStream());
do {
try {
message = (String) input.readObject();
System.out.println(messagenum +" Output> " +message);
} catch (EOFException | SocketException e) {
message = null;
}
if (message != null) {
output.writeObject(messagenum +" FromServer> " +message);
output.flush();
++messagenum;
}
} while (message != null);
input.close();
output.close();
this.connection.close();
} catch (IOException | ClassNotFoundException ex) {
System.err.println("Error encountered! Exiting program...");
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Class 3 - client main
public class EchoClient implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private Socket connection;
private ObjectOutputStream output;
private transient ObjectInputStream input;
private String message = "";
private static String serverName;
public static final String DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME = "localhost";
private static int portNum;
BufferedReader keyboard = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
public EchoClient(String serverName, int portNum) {
this.serverName = serverName;
this.portNum = portNum;
}
public synchronized void runClient() {
try {
connection = new Socket(InetAddress.getByName(serverName), portNum);
output = new ObjectOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream());
input = new ObjectInputStream(connection.getInputStream());
do {
System.out.print("Input> ");
message = keyboard.readLine();
if (message != null){
output.writeObject(message);
output.flush();
message = (String) input.readObject();
System.out.println(message);
}
} while (message != null);
input.close();
output.close();
connection.close();
} catch (IOException ioException) {
ioException.printStackTrace();
} catch (ClassNotFoundException exception) {
exception.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
switch (args.length) {
case 2:
(new EchoClient(args[0], Integer.parseInt(args[1]))).runClient();
break;
case 1:
(new EchoClient(DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME, Integer.parseInt(args[0]))).runClient();
break;
default:
(new EchoClient(DEFAULT_SERVER_NAME, server.EchoServer.DEFAULT_PORT)).runClient();
}
}
}

Call server.accept() in the loop to accept multiple client connections as mentioned in the other answers. Start a new thread with the Thread.start method instead of Thread.run- What's the difference between Thread start() and Runnable run().
volatile boolean isRunning = true;
public void runServer() {
System.out.println("Echo Server started...");
try {
server = new ServerSocket(portNum);
while(isRunning) {
Socket connection = server.accept();
new Thread(new ClientHandler(connection)).start();
}
} catch(IOException ex) {
System.err.println("Error encountered! Port is likely already in use! Exiting program...");
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

run server needs to wait for connections in a loop otherwise it will connect once and that is it. It needs to close its connections too. Clean up its threads. that's just in server main. I'm pretty sure this is a duplicate. So keep on researching

As said by efekctive, you need your server.accept() in a loop, else it will accept the first client and exit the program. So put these two lines in runServer() in a loop like this:
boolean isRunning = true;
while(isRunning){
Socket connection = server.accept();
new Thread(new ClientHandler(connection)).run();
}

MulServer - Client communication: After a shutdown, connected clients can still interact[WHY?]

UPDATE: Thank you very Antoniossss and Peter Lawrey!
I created a Multi-Threaded Server - Client Communication.
I have 3 Classes: Server, Client, RequestHandler.
The server opens a ServerSocket and then starts to listen for clients via accept() and if a client connects, he refers the client's task(some String) to the RequestHandler.
The command important to me is "SHUTDOWN".
If the RequestHandler finds this command, he calls a method within the Server to shutdown.
This method is based on the usage Example of the Executor Service:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/ExecutorService.html (if you do not want to click on the link, see the FAT text for the method)
You do not have to read the code provided below, but in case someone is interested in it I am providing it
The method of the usage Example:
void shutdownAndAwaitTermination(ExecutorService pool) {
pool.shutdown(); // Disable new tasks from being submitted
try {
// Wait a while for existing tasks to terminate
if (!pool.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
pool.shutdownNow(); // Cancel currently executing tasks
// Wait a while for tasks to respond to being cancelled
if (!pool.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
System.err.println("Pool did not terminate");
}
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
// (Re-)Cancel if current thread also interrupted
pool.shutdownNow();
// Preserve interrupt status
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
}
public class MulServer_v1 {
protected static int portNumber = 8540;
protected static int max_Clients = 3;
protected static boolean shutdownFlag = false;
private static ServerSocket serverSocket;
protected ExecutorService executor;
protected static ArrayList<Socket> socketList = new ArrayList<>();
public MulServer_v1(int portNumber, int poolSize) {
}
public void runServer() {
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(portNumber);
executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(max_Clients);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Could not create server on specific port");
e.printStackTrace();
}
while (!shutdownFlag) {
try {
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
socketList.add(clientSocket);
executor.submit(new RequestHandler_v1(clientSocket));
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Couldn't accept on the Socket");
executor.shutdown();
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
shutdownAndAwaitTermination();
}
public void shutdownAndAwaitTermination() {
System.out.println("Shutting down..");
executor.shutdown(); // Disable new tasks from being submitted
try {
// Wait a while for existing tasks to terminate
if (!executor.awaitTermination(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
executor.shutdownNow();
// Cancel currently executing tasks
System.out.println("komme ich hierhin?");
// Wait a while for tasks to respond to being cancelled
if (!executor.awaitTermination(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
System.err.println("Pool did not terminate");
}
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
// (Re-)Cancel if current thread also interrupted
executor.shutdownNow();
// Preserve interrupt status
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
try {
serverSocket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Serversocket konnte nicht geschlossen werden");
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("I got here!");
for (Socket s : socketList) {
if (s != null) {
try {
s.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Couldn't close the socket");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MulServer_v1 server = new MulServer_v1(portNumber, max_Clients);
server.runServer();
}
}
public class Client_v1 {
public static final String HOSTNAME = "localhost";
public static final int PORTNUMBER = 8540;
private static boolean clientClose = false;
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
System.out.println("Client started");
try (Socket socket = new Socket(HOSTNAME, PORTNUMBER);
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(),
true);
// InputStream test = echoSocket.getInputStream();
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
socket.getInputStream()));
BufferedReader stdIn = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(System.in))) {
String userInput;
while ((userInput = stdIn.readLine()) != null && !clientClose) {
out.println(userInput);
System.out.println("echo: " + in.readLine());
// if (userInput.equals("BYE")) {
// break;
// }
}
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
System.err.println("Don't know about host " + HOSTNAME);
System.exit(1);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Couldn't get I/O for the connection to "
+ HOSTNAME);
System.exit(1);
}
}
protected static void closeClient() {
clientClose = true;
}
}
public class RequestHandler_v1 implements Runnable {
// private final String password = "passwort";
private final Socket client;
private boolean closeFlag = false;
public RequestHandler_v1(Socket client) {
this.client = client;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try (BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
client.getInputStream()));
BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(
new OutputStreamWriter(client.getOutputStream()));) {
System.out.println("Thread started with name:"
+ Thread.currentThread().getName());
String userInput;
String serverResponse;
while ((userInput = in.readLine()) != null) {
serverResponse = processInput(userInput);
System.out.println("Received message from "
+ Thread.currentThread().getName() + " : " + userInput);
writer.write("Sever Response : " + serverResponse);
writer.newLine();
writer.flush();
if (closeFlag) {
Client_v1.closeClient();
MulServer_v1.socketList.remove(client);
client.close();
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("I/O exception: " + e);
} catch (Exception ex) {
System.out.println("Exception in Thread Run. Exception : " + ex);
}
}
public String processInput(String input) {
boolean commandFound = false;
String output = "";
try {
if (input.getBytes("UTF-8").length > 255)
output = "Max string length exceeded";
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
Pattern allPattern = Pattern
.compile("(?<lower>^LOWERCASE\\s.+)|(?<upper>^UPPERCASE\\s.+)|(?<reverse>^REVERSE\\s.+)|(?<bye>^BYE)|(?<shutdown>^SHUTDOWN passwort)");
Matcher allMatcher = allPattern.matcher(input);
if (allMatcher.find()) {
String lower = allMatcher.group("lower");
String upper = allMatcher.group("upper");
String reverse = allMatcher.group("reverse");
String bye = allMatcher.group("bye");
String shutdown = allMatcher.group("shutdown");
commandFound = true;
if (lower != null) {
output = lower.substring(10).toLowerCase();
}
if (upper != null) {
output = upper.substring(10).toUpperCase();
}
if (reverse != null) {
output = new StringBuilder(reverse.substring(8)).reverse()
.toString();
}
if (bye != null) {
output = "BYE";
closeFlag = true;
}
if (shutdown != null) {
output = "SHUTDOWN";
MulServer_v1.shutdownFlag = true;
closeFlag = true;
}
} else {
commandFound = false;
output = "UNKNOWN COMMAND";
}
if (commandFound) {
output = "OK ".concat(output);
} else {
output = "ERROR ".concat(output);
}
return output;
}
}
Now the shutting down works, but new clients can connect after the shutdown. How is that possible?
This is Sysout I used to check:
Shutting down..
Thread started with name:pool-1-thread-3
Received message from pool-1-thread-3 : . //<--This (Sending a message) should //NOT be able to happen, since executor.shutdown(); has already been called.

The thing is that your signaling is broken:
while (!shutdownFlag) {
try {
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
executor.execute(new RequestHandler_v1(clientSocket));
} catch (IOException e) {
accept() is blocking operation - it blocks until new connection comes right? And here is the culrpit. After you send your "shutdown" command, current thread will unblock, submit the tast, pass the while condition and block again on accept(). After this, proper executor will set the flag to false, but server is still accepting so pool is never shut down.
Another attempt to connect should wake the server and honor shutdownFlag breaking out of the loop and causing all handlers to die after 10 seconds.
Also:
while ((userInput = in.readLine()) != null) {
is a blocking operation - it block your tasks from finishing thus pool will newer shut down. null will be returned if stream will end - either naturally or by an exception. You are not ending the stream on neither of sides. So it will block.
ExecutorsService#shutdownNow() does not mean that threads from pool will be killed - they are signalled to terminate, and threads are to gracefully terminate just like #PeterLawrey mentioned, using Thread.isTerminated() flag.

Proof of concept that closing the socket will break from blocked IO operation:
public class Buffers {
private static Socket client;
static class ServerThread extends Thread {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
ServerSocket serverS = new ServerSocket(1099);
client = serverS.accept();
client.getOutputStream().write('a');
client.getOutputStream().flush();
Thread.sleep(2000);
client.close();
} catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
static class ClientThread extends Thread {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
Socket socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1099);
BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
System.out.println("Will try to read");
String line=null;
while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) { // block here
System.out.println("Read " + line); // will never come here
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Server closed the connection!");
}
super.run();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
new ServerThread().start();
ClientThread t = new ClientThread();
t.start();
t.join();
}
If you comment client.close(); app will never end just like in your case.

Handling multi Java TCP clients with Threads

I have been working with TCP server/client stuff for a while. I am actully good at UDP programming when it comes to connecting more than one user that is multiple clients. I tried to do the same on a TCP server that i made using Threads but whenever the Thread gets to this piece of code
String reader = (String)in.readObject();
an error is generated and the thread stops executing the code but the thread still runs the program keeping it alive.
Anyway here is the entire source code :
public class TestServer implements Runnable {
private Thread run, streams, connect, receive, send;
private ServerSocket socket;
private Socket conn;
private ObjectInputStream in;
private ObjectOutputStream out;
private boolean running, incomingMessage = false;
private int port;
public TestServer(int port) throws IOException {
this.port = port;
socket = new ServerSocket(port);
console("Server stated on : " + InetAddress.getLocalHost() + " : " + port);
run = new Thread(this, "Run");
run.start();
}
public void run() {
running = true;
connect();
receive();
}
private void connect() {
connect = new Thread("Connect") {
public void run() {
while(running) {
try {
conn = socket.accept();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
console("You are now connected" + conn.getInetAddress().toString() + " : " + conn.getPort());
try {
setupStreams();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}; connect.start();
}
private void setupStreams() throws IOException {
streams = new Thread("Streams") {
public void run() {
try {
console("Setting up Streams");
out = new ObjectOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream());
out.flush();
in = new ObjectInputStream(conn.getInputStream());
console("Streams are now setup");
incomingMessage = true;
receive.start();
} catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}; streams.start();
}
private void receive() {
receive = new Thread("Receive") {
public void run() {
while(incomingMessage) {
String message = "";
try {
message = (String) in.readObject();
//This is the only flaw the program
} catch (ClassNotFoundException | IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
console("Client : " + message);
}
}
};
}
private void console(String message) {
System.out.println(message);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
new TestServer(1234);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
FYI am not new to this. The error is caused because the server starts receiving packets even when there are no packets to be received. But because the thread forces it to receive it, i generates the error in the thread and dont know any other way to counter this. So please help. Thanks in Advance.

You shouldn't need 2 threads per connection. One thread is all that's required. After the connection is accepted, pass it to a worker thread to start reading. This can be done in a while loop in the worker thread.
Even though the socket's input stream can be read, the ObjectInputStream() class is more sensitive. If there is any error, its state is corrupted and it can't be used.
while (true) {
try {
Object input = in.readObject();
message = (String) input;
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
break; //unrecoverable
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
break; //unrecoverable
}
console("Client : " + message);
}
It's a better design to use a specific message protocol instead of sending serialized Java objects. For example if you are sending Strings like your sample, an InputStreamReader can be used to convert bytes to characters more easily and with less error handling.
These resources would be helpful to you:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/networking/sockets/clientServer.html#later
Java - Listening to a socket with ObjectInputStream
ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream()); does not work

Java the best way of waiting & getting data from your client

I started learning networking with the main networking package in JDK, it's pretty simple and easy after a few examples. But now I am interested into making multi-client applications like a chat system.
My structure idea so far is like this:
Connection handler class, which handles incoming connections, and holds the list of clients.
If new connection was found, create a new client object, start it's thread (Client object will implement runnable, so it will start it's own looping service, it will loop for new packets received), and add it to the list.
I create a new thread for each client instead of looping through all clients because the reading from client process stops the whole execution and will wait for the client to send data, which is kinda annoys me and this is my issue there.
I have created a simple console app that receives messages from the client, but now I want to detect disconnections. I read that bufferedReader .read() method returns -1 if user is not connected, so I thought I could loop and do that every number of seconds to every client, but the thing is, the client must send a packet in order to .read() it, so let's say if you do .read() it will wait & stop the whole thread until packet is received, (I think).
This is my current code which gets messages from client:
public boolean isConnected() {
try {
this.in.read();
this.lastCheck = System.currentTimeMillis();
return true;
} catch (IOException e) {
if (!inConnection()) {
System.out.println("User disconnected");
try {
this.destruct();
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return false;
}
private boolean inConnection() {
return System.currentTimeMillis() - lastCheck < this.maxTime;
}
public void startClientService() throws IOException {
while(!this.session.isClosed()) {
if (System.currentTimeMillis() - this.checkTime > 600) {
System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() - this.checkTime);
if (this.isConnected()) {
int packetType = this.dataIn.readInt();
packets.getPacket(packetType);
}
}
}
}
public void destruct() throws IOException {
this.session.close();
this.connection.removeClient(this);
System.out.println("Session killed");
}
Basically what happens here, I am sending a integer packed from the client, I might have many things to do so therefore I can set many unique packet ID's, so if I want to receive and process a chat message, the packet id is 216, the client sends a int 216, server reads the packet, enters the switch loop of all packet ids and detects if its really 216, if yes it gets the instance of the packed class that handles messages & gets the bytes of the received message like this:
public class Chat implements Packet {
#Override
public void processPacket(Session c) {
String message = readMessage(c);
System.out.println("Message: " + message);
}
private String readMessage(Session c) {
byte[] data = c.readBytes();
String message = null;
try {
message = new String(data, "UTF-8");
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return message;
}
}
And this is how I read bytes:
public byte[] readBytes() {
int len;
byte[] data = null;
try {
len = this.dataIn.readInt();
data = new byte[len];
if (len > 0) {
this.dataIn.readFully(data);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return data;
}
Okay my problem:
after adding the is disconnected detection, when I send my message, nothing happens. This is probably due to the .read() it stops and is waiting for a response. BUT if I write a message again, I will get the message in server.
This is my temporary, ugly client:
public class Client {
public static void main(String[] args) throws UnknownHostException, IOException {
Socket socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 43594);
Scanner r = new Scanner(System.in);
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream());
String input;
while(true) {
input = r.next();
if (input != null) {
sendMessage(input, out);
}
}
}
public static void sendMessage(String message, PrintWriter out) {
byte[] encoded = encode(message);
out.write(0);
out.println(encoded + "\n");
out.flush();
}
public static byte[] encode(String s) {
return DatatypeConverter.parseBase64Binary(s);
}
public static String decode(byte[] s) {
return DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(s);
}
}
My question is: What is a better way of reading data from client without making the application wait for it and actually loop everytime? OR maybe should I have a new thread for checking if user is online so it's 2 threads per 1 client?
If someone needs my session object (client object):
public class Session extends Thread implements Runnable {
private Socket session;
private Client client;
private PrintWriter out;
private BufferedReader in;
private PacketHandler packets;
private DataInputStream dataIn;
private ConnectionHandler connection;
private final int checkTime = 1600;
private final int maxTime = 22000;
private long lastCheck;
public Session(Socket session) {
this.session = session;
this.client = new Client(this);
try {
this.setStream();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
this.packets = new PacketHandler(this);
System.out.println("[New session created]: " + session.getRemoteSocketAddress());
}
public void setConnectionHandler(ConnectionHandler c) {
this.connection = c;
}
public void run() {
try {
this.startClientService();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void setStream() throws IOException {
this.out = new PrintWriter(this.session.getOutputStream());
this.in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(this.session.getInputStream()));
this.dataIn = new DataInputStream(this.session.getInputStream());
}
public Client getClient() {
return this.client;
}
public byte[] readBytes() {
int len;
byte[] data = null;
try {
len = this.dataIn.readInt();
data = new byte[len];
if (len > 0) {
this.dataIn.readFully(data);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return data;
}
public String readMessage() {
try {
return this.in.readLine();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
public boolean isConnected() {
try {
this.in.read();
this.lastCheck = System.currentTimeMillis();
return true;
} catch (IOException e) {
if (!inConnection()) {
System.out.println("User disconnected");
try {
this.destruct();
} catch (IOException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return false;
}
private boolean inConnection() {
return System.currentTimeMillis() - lastCheck < this.maxTime;
}
public void startClientService() throws IOException {
while(!this.session.isClosed()) {
if (System.currentTimeMillis() - this.checkTime > 600) {
System.out.println(System.currentTimeMillis() - this.checkTime);
if (this.isConnected()) {
int packetType = this.dataIn.readInt();
packets.getPacket(packetType);
}
}
}
}
public void destruct() throws IOException {
this.session.close();
this.connection.removeClient(this);
System.out.println("Session killed");
}
}
Thanks!

While I don't have time to look over all the code, here are two things that could help you out.
1) Use a defined message header. Define X number of bytes of each message that the client will send to the server. Use these bytes to define how long the message will be, and what type of message it is. The server knows the length and layout of this header, and uses it to process the message in a particular way. Example could be a header of one byte. A value of 1 could be a I'm connected message. 2 could be I'm about to disconnect. 3 could be I'm currently away, and 4 could be an incoming chat message.
2) There are 2 ways you can handle the input. First is to use blocking IO, and create a separate thread to receive messages from each client. I believe this is what you are currently doing. The second is to use non-blocking IO, and have a separate thread iterate over the open sockets and do a read. Non-blocking will check if there is data to read, but if there is not, the thread will continue executing.