Creating the ServerSocket in a separate thread? - java

I have a problem with using a ServerSocket in my application.
I'm creating the ServerSocket in the constructor of my application. The constructor of the socket calls the accept() method to wait for a client to connect.
The problem is that the accept() method is freezing my whole application until a client connects. So I would like to ask if there's an alternative to creating the whole ServerSocket in a separate thread, that the constructor of the ServerSocket and its accept() method is called beside my main application?
Edit:
Thanks to Olivier for the advice, putting the .accept into a runnable and creating a threadpool to handle the clientconnections.
Thats my code right now:
public void start(){
final ExecutorService clientProcessingPool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
Runnable serverTask = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
while (true) {
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
objectout = new ObjectOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
clientProcessingPool.submit(new ClientTask(clientSocket,objectout));
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Accept failed.");
}
}
};
Everythings running fine! Thanks!

Usually, I use N+1 threads for this : one for the ServerSocket, to avoid blocking the whole application waiting for a client to connect; and N threads to process the client's requests, N being the size of the thread pool (I recommend using a thread pool over creating a new thread per client).
Here is an example (just coded it, you may want to have better exception management and such, but this is a minimal working example)
public class Server {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Server().startServer();
}
public void startServer() {
final ExecutorService clientProcessingPool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
Runnable serverTask = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(8000);
System.out.println("Waiting for clients to connect...");
while (true) {
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
clientProcessingPool.submit(new ClientTask(clientSocket));
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Unable to process client request");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Thread serverThread = new Thread(serverTask);
serverThread.start();
}
private class ClientTask implements Runnable {
private final Socket clientSocket;
private ClientTask(Socket clientSocket) {
this.clientSocket = clientSocket;
}
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Got a client !");
// Do whatever required to process the client's request
try {
clientSocket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}

Related

Writing Java Server to handle multiple client concurrently (simultaneously)

I am working on a program where I have a Server and Client class, but at the moment it only handles only one client at a time.
I need the server to be able to handle multiple clients concurrently (simultaneously), using multithreading.
Here is my Server code; how can I change it to handle multiple clients concurrently?
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
ServerSocket socket = new ServerSocket(8945);
Server serverInstance = new Server();
System.out.println("Server is running. Waiting for client.");
while(true) {
server.socket = s.accept();
System.out.println("Client connected");
serverInstance.run();
System.out.println("Client disconnected. Waiting for new client.");
}
}
public void run() {
try {
try {
in = new Scanner(socket.getInputStream());
out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream());
RequestHandlingMethod();
} finally {
socket.close();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println(e);
}
}
Create a separate class that handles the client. Make it implement Runnable so that you can just start a separate Thread with it.
public class ClientHandler implements Runnable {
private final Socket socket;
public ClientHandler(Socket socket) {
this.socket = socket;
}
public void run() {
try (Socket socket = this.socket;
Scanner in = new Scanner(socket.getInputStream();
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream()) {
//todo: do whatever you need to do
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Client disconnected.");
}
}
Then in your server you do:
System.out.println("Waiting for new client connection");
Socket clientSocket = s.accept();
System.out.println("Client connected");
new Thread(new ClientHandler(clientSocket)).start();
If you don't want to create a lot of disposable Threads, you might want to consider using an ExecutorService with a cached thread pool (or another thread pool of your choice if you prefer).
You would just create a new ExecutorService with ExecutorService executor = ExecutorService.newCachedThreadPool() and then inside your loop you do:
System.out.println("Waiting for new client connection");
Socket clientSocket = s.accept();
System.out.println("Client connected");
executor.submit(new ClientHandler(clientSocket));
If you think you are going to have a lot of concurrent clients, you might want to look at using a non-blocking server with NIO instead. It will have 1 single event loop thread instead (doesn't block on the accept) and handles all I/O events in there, and you can have a pool of worker threads that do the client handling logic.

How to pass object by socket in java Server Client

I'm new in Java Sockets, I have seen so many examples but I can't understand how to pass an argument from server to client and vice versa. My destination is to pass an Object that's why I'm using Object I/O Stream.
I have to classes Server and Player.
public class Server extends Thread{
public static final int TEST = 165;
ServerSocket serverSocket;
InetAddress address;
Player playerWhite;
public Server() {
start();
}
#Override
public void run() {
try
{
address = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(6000);
playerWhite = new Player();
System.out.println("server waits for players");
playerWhite.socket = serverSocket.accept();
playerWhite.start();
sendTestMessage(playerWhite);
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
Logger.getLogger(Server.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
public void sendTestMessage(Player player) throws IOException
{
ObjectOutputStream testToClient = new ObjectOutputStream(player.socket.getOutputStream());
testToClient.write(TEST);
testToClient.flush();
}
And the Player class:
public class Player extends Thread {
Socket socket;
Player() throws IOException
{
socket = new Socket(InetAddress.getLocalHost(), 6000);
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
listenTestStream();
}
catch (IOException | ClassNotFoundException ex)
{
Logger.getLogger(CheckerPlayer.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
public void listenTestStream() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException
{
ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
int message = ois.readInt();
//To test
System.out.println("Server listened: " + message);
}
I execute it as create a Server object in the other class.
When I have testing this application I saw that sometimes client is faster than Server. Is it possible to make him "wait" for server response?
Thanks for your response.
EDIT 1: PROBLEM SOLUTION:
From outside we should create:
Player player = new Player(); // (class player extends from Thread)
player.start();
and delete the Player variable - is not necessary, we need only Socket so:
Server:
Socket playerWhiteSocket
public void run() {
try
{
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(PORT);
playerWhiteSocket = serverSocket.accept();
sendMessage(playerWhiteSocket, "Hello");
}
catch(IOException | ClassNotFoundException ex)
{}
public void sendMessage(Socket socket, String message) throws IOException
{
ObjectOutputStream testToClient = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
testToClient.writeObject(message);
testToClient.flush();
}
In Player class we need get method:
public String receiveMessage() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException
{
//socket is a variable get from Player class socket = new Socket("severHost", PORT);
ObjectInputStream messageFromServer = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
String message = (String) messageFromServer.readObject();
return message;
}
I would recomment doing this public void start(){
try {
ServerSocket = new ServerSocket(this.port,10,this.localAddress);
// set timeout if you want
//this.clientServerSocket.setSoTimeout(timeout);
// infinity loop
while(true)
{
//wait for a client connection
Socket socket = ServerSocket.accept();
// start thread for every new client
Thread t = new Thread(new AcceptClients(this.socket));
t.start();
System.out.println(L"new client connected");
// call garbage collector and hope for the best
System.gc();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("IO Error");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
and then in another class
public class AcceptClients implements Runnable{
// socket
private Socket socket;
public AcceptClients (Socket socket){
this.socket = socket;
}
#Override
public void run() {
// what happens if a client connect
}
}
I always use this and it works fine
Suggested changes.
Create ServerSocket only once. If you have done it, you won't get "Address already in use" error
After creating Server Socket, you thread should be in while (true) loop to accept connection from client.
Once you create a client socket, pass that socket to thread.
Now Player is used to send communication from server to client socket. So You need one more class like PlayerClient which create a socket to Server IP and Port. Now PlayerClient should create one more thread to handle IO operations like you have done from server. In this case, creating a socket is not in while loop from client side. It create a socket to server once. Now you can run this PlayerClient program from multiple machines.
If you are just sending just primitive type, use DataOutputStream & DataInputStream instead of ObjectStreams
This code will become like this
try
{
address = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(6000);
System.out.println("server waits for players");
while ( true){
Socket socket = serverSocket.accept();
Player playerWhite = new Player(socket);
sendTestMessage(socket);// Move this method to Player thread and change the signature of this method accordingly to accept a socket
}
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
Logger.getLogger(Server.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
Player.java
Player(Socket socket) throws IOException
{
this.socket = socket;
start();
}
Have a look at this chat example for better understanding.
Yep it is.
It should work if you put it in a endlees loop like that:
try
{
while(true){
address = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(6000);
playerWhite = new Player();
System.out.println("server waits for players");
playerWhite.socket = serverSocket.accept();
playerWhite.start();
sendTestMessage(playerWhite);
}
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
Logger.getLogger(Server.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
But I would not recommend to put this in a thread. Instead I would put the connection of a new client in a thread, so multiple clients can connect to the server

Java Sockets - Running the same client multiple times in parallel.

(Disclaimer that some of this code will be similar to online tutorials)
I think I've made it so that my server can handle multiple requests at once using threads, but I'm not entirely sure. And on top of that I don't know how I would actually send multiple requests at once.
My goal is to run my client code multiple times in parallel to see what happens if multiple clients connect to the server at the same time.
Client code (in separate project package):
Client clientSocket = new Client(9990,"localhost");
Socket socket = new Socket(clientSocket.host,clientSocket.portNumber);
clientSocket.performTask(socket);
("performTask(socket)" sends data to the server to perform a task)
Server code (separate project package from client code):
Server server = new Server(9990);
int clientNumber = 0;
ServerSocket socket = new ServerSocket(server.portNumber);
try {
while (true) {
new ServerHandler(socket.accept(),clientNumber).go();
clientNumber++;
}
}
finally {
socket.close();
}
}
ServerHandler class (same project package as server code):
public class ServerHandler extends Thread {
private static Socket socket;
private static int clientNumber;
public ServerHandler(Socket socket, int clientNumber) {
ServerHandler.socket = socket;
ServerHandler.clientNumber = clientNumber;
}
public void go() {
while(true) {
try {
//do calculation, do server tasks, etc.
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
So when the client connects to the server, the server implements the ServerHandler class to do the necessary calculations: the idea in doing that was so that multiple clients could connect all at the same time.
So my question is then in two parts:
(1) Have I set up my programs to allow for multi-threading, or have I made a mistake somewhere along the way? (e.g. someone told me I needed to use "Runnable" somewhere to use multi-threading, and I notice I haven't)
(2) After fixing my code to allow for multi-threading, how would I actually use it to let me run my client code in parallel?
Ok for starters, your ServerHandler extends the Thread class. Therefore to make it run as a seperate thread, always invoke by calling the start() method. You are calling you custom go method which will make the ServerHandler execute in the same thread as your infinite while loop. So it should be something like this ServerHandler(socket.accept(),clientNumber).start(). Also it is always better to implement Runnable because java does not support multiple inheritance via the "extends" concept. Therefore in the future if your ServerHandler needs to actually extend a custom class, it wont be able to since it already extends the Thread class. Its better to implement interfaces since there is no limit as to how many you can implement.
Hence implementing the Runnable interface is a good design choice. You can run your client code in parallel by making the client into a threaded model. Here is one such example of multiple client sockets connecting to the server in parallel
Server Code
public class WebServer {
static int hitCount = 0;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(7777, 10000);
while (true) {
Socket defaultSocket = serverSocket.accept();
new Thread(new ServerSlave(defaultSocket)).start();
System.out.println("Size is :" + hitCount);
}
}
}
class ServerSlave implements Runnable {
Socket clientSocket;
public ServerSlave(Socket socket) {
clientSocket = socket;
WebServer.hitCount++;
}
public void run() {
try {
DataInputStream inputStream = new DataInputStream(clientSocket.getInputStream());
DataOutputStream outputStream = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
System.out.println(inputStream.readUTF());
outputStream.writeUTF("Thank you for contacting the web server");
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
clientSocket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
Client Code :
public class Client {
static int excepCount=0;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
new Thread(new Worker("" + i)).start();
}
Thread.sleep(10000);
System.out.println( Client.excepCount);
}
}
class Worker implements Runnable {
String clientName;
public Worker(String name) {
clientName = name;
}
public void run() {
System.out.println("Process started for : " + clientName);
Socket socket = null;
try {
socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 7777);
DataOutputStream outputStream = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
outputStream.writeUTF("Hello socket. Client number " + clientName + "here");
InputStream inFromServer = socket.getInputStream();
DataInputStream in =
new DataInputStream(inFromServer);
System.out.println("Server says " + in.readUTF());
System.out.println("Closing socket");
} catch (IOException e) {
Client.excepCount++;
e.printStackTrace();
}finally{
try {
socket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
You should use multithreading .
You have to rename method to "run"/ and call that method using "start".Please change Server side code to
try {
while (true) {
new ServerHandler(socket.accept(),clientNumber).start();
clientNumber++;
}
}
finally {
socket.close();
}
and client side
public class ServerHandler extends Thread {
private static Socket socket;
private static int clientNumber;
public ServerHandler(Socket socket, int clientNumber) {
ServerHandler.socket = socket;
ServerHandler.clientNumber = clientNumber;
}
public void run() {
while(true) {
try {
//do calculation, do server tasks, etc.
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

Multithread Server Java

I'm trying to make a simple ECHO server that can manage more client.
Server Class:
public class EchoServer {
protected int port ;
protected ServerSocket socket;
private Socket acceptedSocket;
public EchoServer(int port) throws IOException {
this.port = port;
socket = new ServerSocket(port);
}
public void start() throws AcceptingClientException {
while(!socket.isClosed()) {
try {
acceptedSocket = socket.accept();
}
catch (IOException e){
throw new AcceptingClientException();
}
ClientHandler ch = new ClientHandler(acceptedSocket);
ch.run();
}
}
}
Runnable client handler:
public class ClientHandler implements Runnable {
Socket socket;
public ClientHandler(Socket socket) {
this.socket = socket;
}
#Override
public void run() {
PrintWriter From_Server = null;
BufferedReader To_Server = null;
String to_server_string = null;
try {
From_Server = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream());
To_Server =
new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader( socket.getInputStream()));
System.out.println("Stream opened.\n");
while(true) {
if(To_Server.ready()){
System.out.println("Reading input line.\n");
to_server_string = To_Server.readLine();
if(to_server_string.equalsIgnoreCase("quit")) {
System.out.println("Connection closed on user request.\n");
From_Server.print("Bye :)\n");
From_Server.close();
To_Server.close();
socket.close();
}
else {
System.out.println(
"String '" +
to_server_string+"' is not 'quit', echoing.\n");
From_Server.print("ECHO: "+to_server_string+"\n");
System.out.println("String written on stream, flushing.\n");
From_Server.flush();
}
}
}
}
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Stream error (connection closed?).\n");
}
}
}
Main Class
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
EchoServer server= new EchoServer(9999);
server.start();
}
catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Unable to start server (port is busy?)\n");
Logger.getLogger(SimpleServer.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
catch (AcceptingClientException e){
System.out.println("Unable to accept client\n");
}
}
More than one client is able to connect to the server, but the ECHO will works only with one client at the time (if I close the connection with one client the server will start to handle another one automatically), but I can't understand why: when a client connects to the server, the associated socked created with server.accept() is passed to a new instance of a runnable client handler which is started with handler.run() and the server should go back on waiting in server.accept() (unless the ServerSocket is closed).
I'm assuming the issue should be with this method of the server class:
public void start() throws AcceptingClientException {
while(!socket.isClosed()) {
try {
acceptedSocket=socket.accept();
}
catch (IOException e){
throw new AcceptingClientException();
}
ClientHandler ch = new ClientHandler(acceptedSocket);
ch.run();
}
}
But I can't figure out what is wrong with it...what am I missing?
Your code:
ClientHandler ch = new ClientHandler(acceptedSocket);
ch.run();
doesn't start a new thread, it delegates to ClientHandler.run() in the same thread.
To start a thread, use new Thread( ch ).start(); since ch is of class ClientHandler which implements Runnable.

Server/client communications not working java

I am trying to write a program in which the client requests the number of cores the server has. I do this as follows:
Client:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
try {
Socket clientSocket = new Socket("128.59.65.200", 6789);
DataOutputStream outToServer = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
BufferedReader inFromServer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
String numberOfCores = inFromServer.readLine();clientSocket.close();
System.out.println(numberOfCores);
} catch (IOException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
Server:
public static void sendNumberOfCores() {
Thread coresThread = new Thread() {
public void run() {
try {
int numberOfCores;
ServerSocket welcomeSocket = new ServerSocket(6789);
while (true) {
Socket connectionSocket = welcomeSocket.accept();
DataOutputStream outToClient = new DataOutputStream(connectionSocket.getOutputStream());
numberOfCores = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
outToClient.write(numberOfCores);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
coresThread.setName("Wait for core request thread");
coresThread.start();
}
However, when I load the server and hit the button on my gui which runs the client code, nothing happens and the button just gets stuck. What is causing this?
Thank you.
Server not initialized on the 6789 port and make sure you do that in a separate thread.
Some thing like this.
In Server class:
--Make an inner class say MyServer
class MyServer implements Runnable{
final int BACKLOG=10; //10 is the backlog,if your server wishes to serve requests.
final int PORT = 6789;
public void run(){
try {
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(PORT,BACKLOG); //10 is the backlog,if your server wishes to serve conncurrent requests.
while (true) {
Socket ClientConnetion = serverSocket.accept();
//Now whatever you want to do with ClientConnection socket you can call
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
--Start this thread in you main server class
MyServer mys=new MyServer();
Thread r=new Thread(mys);
mys.start();
It ended up that I was sending an integer when the code on the client was waiting for a string.

Categories