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Writing data to OutputStream without closing with CLDC

I have a small J2ME app that should send some bytes to a socket and read response. However, when I close OutputStrean, the socket closes too, and I can't read response. I thought I could try OutputStream.flush();, but it does nothing.
Here is my readAll() method that should read data from OutputStream:
public final static String readAll(InputStream d) throws IOException {
ByteArrayOutputStream res = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];
int length;
while ((length = d.read(bytes)) != -1){
res.write(bytes, 0, length);
}
return new String(res.toByteArray(), "UTF-8");
}

You'll typically want to have a thread running in the background that handles actually sending and receiving data.
The data that is received should provide some way of determining when that particular chunk of data terminates. For example, the server might send back:
(long)length+(byte[])data
So from the stream you would read in take 8 bytes + whatever the length is, then you would use that data to construct an object that represents that message and your other thread would read in that data to decide what data it wants to send out.
In order to send data out you would effectively do the reverse, with a separate thread consuming objects that represent messages to be sent.
These are called message queues and you can read more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_queue

Ngrok streaming audio exception

I've write a Client / Server code using Java server socket ( TCP ).
The server is working as a Radio, listening to Mic, and sending the bytes to connected clients.
When i run the code using "localhost" as server name, it works very well, and i can hear the voice in the speakers without any issues.
Now, when i want to expose the localhost to internet using ngrok:
Forwarding tcp://0.tcp.ngrok.io:11049 -> localhost:5000
I start to get below exception in the client side:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: illegal request to write non-integral number of frames (1411 bytes, frameSize = 2 bytes)
at com.sun.media.sound.DirectAudioDevice$DirectDL.write(Unknown Source)
at client.Client.Start(Client.java:79)
at client.Receiver.main(Receiver.java:17)
Does any one know why, and how i can fix such problem ?
I tried to change the byte array length.
//server code
byte _buffer[] = new byte[(int) (_mic.getFormat().getSampleRate() *0.4)];
// byte _buffer[] = new byte[1024];
_mic.start();
while (_running) {
// returns the length of data copied in buffer
int count = _mic.read(_buffer, 0, _buffer.length);
//if data is available
if (count > 0) {
server.SendToAll(_buffer, 0, count);
}
}
// client code where exception happens:
_streamIn = _server.getInputStream();
_speaker.start();
byte[] data = new byte[8000];
System.out.println("Waiting for data...");
while (_running) {
// checking if the data is available to speak
if (_streamIn.available() <= 0)
continue; // data not available so continue back to start of loop
// count of the data bytes read
int readCount= _streamIn.read(data, 0, data.length);
if(readCount>0){
_speaker.write(data, 0, readCount); // here throws exception
}
}
should play the sound through the speaker.

how to send both binary file and text using the same socket

i have to send a short string as text from client to server and then after that send a binary file.
how would I send both binary file and the string using the same socket connection?
the server is a java desktop application and the client is an Android tablet. i have already set it up to send text messages between the client and server in both directions. i have not yet done the binary file sending part.
one idea is to set up two separate servers running at the same time. I think this is possible if i use two different port numbers and set up the servers on two different threads in the application. and i would have to set up two concurrent clients running on two services in the Android app.
the other idea is to somehow use an if else statement to determine which of the two types of files is being sent, either text of binary, and use the appropriate method to receive the file for the file type being sent.
example code for sending text
PrintWriter out;
BufferedReader in;
out = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter
(new OutputStreamWriter(Socket.getOutputStream())) true,);
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
out.println("test out");
String message = in.readLine();
example code for sending binary file
BufferedOutputStream out;
BufferedInputStream in;
byte[] buffer = new byte[];
int length = 0;
out = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("test.pdf));
in = new BufferedInputStream(new FileOutputStream("replacement.pdf"));
while((length = in.read(buffer)) > 0 ){
out.write(buffer, 0, length);
}

I don't think using two threads would be necessary in your case. Simply use the socket's InputStream and OutputStream in order to send binary data after you have sent your text messages.
Server Code
OutputStream stream = socket.getOutputStream();
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(
new BufferedWriter(
new OutputStreamWriter(stream)
)
);
out.println("test output");
out.flush(); // ensure that the string is not buffered by the BufferedWriter
byte[] data = getBinaryDataSomehow();
stream.write(data);
Client Code
InputStream stream = socket.getInputStream();
String message = readLineFrom(stream);
int dataSize = getSizeOfBinaryDataSomehow();
int totalBytesRead = 0;
byte[] data = new byte[dataSize];
while (totalBytesRead < dataSize) {
int bytesRemaining = dataSize - totalBytesRead;
int bytesRead = stream.read(data, totalBytesRead, bytesRemaining);
if (bytesRead == -1) {
return; // socket has been closed
}
totalBytesRead += bytesRead;
}
In order to determine the correct dataSize on the client side you have to transmit the size of the binary block somehow. You could send it as a String right before out.flush() in the Server Code or make it part of your binary data. In the latter case the first four or eight bytes could hold the actual length of the binary data in bytes.
Hope this helps.
Edit
As #EJP correctly pointed out, using a BufferedReader on the client side will probably result in corrupted or missing binary data because the BufferedReader "steals" some bytes from the binary data to fill its buffer. Instead you should read the string data yourself and either look for a delimiter or have the length of the string data transmitted by some other means.
/* Reads all bytes from the specified stream until it finds a line feed character (\n).
* For simplicity's sake I'm reading one character at a time.
* It might be better to use a PushbackInputStream, read more bytes at
* once, and push the surplus bytes back into the stream...
*/
private static String readLineFrom(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(stream);
StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
for (int character = reader.read(); character != -1; character = reader.read()) {
if (character == '\n')
break;
buffer.append((char)character);
}
return buffer.toString();
}

You can read about how HTTP protocol works which essentially sends 'ascii and human readable' headers (so to speak) and after that any content can be added with appropriate encoding like base64 for example. You may create sth similar yourself.

You need to first send the String, then the size of the byte array then the byte array, use String.startsWith() method to check what is being send.

Java getInputStream Read not Exiting

Hi I have created a server socket for reading byte array from socket using getInputStream, But getInputStream.read is not exiting after endof data reaches. Below is my code.
class imageReciver extends Thread {
private ServerSocket serverSocket;
InputStream in;
public imageReciver(int port) throws IOException
{
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
}
public void run()
{
Socket server = null;
server = serverSocket.accept();
in = server.getInputStream();
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte buffer[] = new byte[1024];
while(true){
int s = 0;
s = in.read(buffer); //Not exiting from here
if(s<0) break;
baos.write(buffer, 0, s);
}
server.close();
return;
}
}
From the client if I sent 2048 bytes, the line in.read(buffer) should return -1 after reading two times, but it waiting there to read for the third time. How can I solve this ?
Thanks in advance....

Your server will need to close the connection, basically. If you're trying to send multiple "messages" over the same connection, you'll need some way to indicate the size/end of a message - e.g. length-prefixing or using a message delimiter. Remember that you're using a stream protocol - the abstraction is just that this is a stream of data; it's up to you to break it up as you see fit.
See the "network packets" in Marc Gravell's IO blog post for more information.
EDIT: Now that we know that you have an expected length, you probably want something like this:
int remainingBytes = expectedBytes;
while (remainingBytes > 0) {
int bytesRead = in.read(buffer, 0, Math.min(buffer.length, remainingBytes));
if (bytesRead < 0) {
throw new IOException("Unexpected end of data");
}
baos.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
remainingBytes -= bytesRead;
}
Note that this will also avoid overreading, i.e. if the server starts sending the next bit of data, we won't read into that.

If I send 2048 bytes, the line 'in.read(buffer)' should return -1 after reading two times.
You are mistaken on at least two counts here. If you send 2048 bytes, the line 'in.read(buffer)' should execute an indeterminate number of times, to read a total of 2048 bytes, and then block. It should only return -1 when the peer has closed the connection.

Java TCP Client-send blocked?

I am writing a java TCP client that talks to a C server.
I have to alternate sends and receives between the two.
Here is my code.
The server sends the length of the binary msg(len) to client(java)
Client sends an "ok" string
Server sends the binary and client allocates a byte array of 'len' bytes to recieve it.
It again sends back an "ok".
step 1. works. I get "len" value. However the Client gets "send blocked" and the server waits to receive data.
Can anybody take a look.
In the try block I have defined:
Socket echoSocket = new Socket("192.168.178.20",2400);
OutputStream os = echoSocket.getOutputStream();
InputStream ins = echoSocket.getInputStream();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(ins));
String fromPU = null;
if( (fromPU = br.readLine()) != null){
System.out.println("Pu returns as="+fromPU);
len = Integer.parseInt(fromPU.trim());
System.out.println("value of len from PU="+len);
byte[] str = "Ok\n".getBytes();
os.write(str, 0, str.length);
os.flush();
byte[] buffer = new byte[len];
int bytes;
StringBuilder curMsg = new StringBuilder();
bytes =ins.read(buffer);
System.out.println("bytes="+bytes);
curMsg.append(new String(buffer, 0, bytes));
System.out.println("ciphertext="+curMsg);
os.write(str, 0, str.length);
os.flush();
}
UPDATED:
Here is my code. At the moment, there is no recv or send blocking on either sides. However, both with Buffered Reader and DataInput Stream reader, I am unable to send the ok msg. At the server end, I get a large number of bytes instead of the 2 bytes for ok.
Socket echoSocket = new Socket("192.168.178.20",2400);
OutputStream os = echoSocket.getOutputStream();
InputStream ins = echoSocket.getInputStream();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(ins));
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(ins);
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(os);
if( (fromPU = dis.readLine()) != null){
//if( (fromPU = br.readLine()) != null){
System.out.println("PU Server returns length as="+fromPU);
len = Integer.parseInt(fromPU.trim());
byte[] str = "Ok".getBytes();
System.out.println("str.length="+str.length);
dos.writeInt(str.length);
if (str.length > 0) {
dos.write(str, 0, str.length);
System.out.println("sent ok");
}
byte[] buffer = new byte[len];
int bytes;
StringBuilder curMsg = new StringBuilder();
bytes =ins.read(buffer);
System.out.println("bytes="+bytes);
curMsg.append(new String(buffer, 0, bytes));
System.out.println("binarytext="+curMsg);
dos.writeInt(str.length);
if (str.length > 0) {
dos.write(str, 0, str.length);
System.out.println("sent ok");
}

Using a BufferedReader around a stream and then trying to read binary data from the stream is a bad idea. I wouldn't be surprised if the server has actually sent all the data in one go, and the BufferedReader has read the binary data as well as the line that it's returned.
Are you in control of the protocol? If so, I suggest you change it to send the length of data as binary (e.g. a fixed 4 bytes) so that you don't need to work out how to switch between text and binary (which is basically a pain).
If you can't do that, you'll probably need to just read a byte at a time to start with until you see the byte representing \n, then convert what you've read into text, parse it, and then read the rest as a chunk. That's slightly inefficient (reading a byte at a time instead of reading a buffer at a time) but I'd imagine the amount of data being read at that point is pretty small.

Several thoughts:
len = Integer.parseInt(fromPU.trim());
You should check the given size against a maximum that makes some sense. Your server is unlikely to send a two gigabyte message to the client. (Maybe it will, but there might be a better design. :) You don't typically want to allocate however much memory a remote client asks you to allocate. That's a recipe for easy remote denial of service attacks.
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(ins));
/* ... */
bytes =ins.read(buffer);
Maybe your BufferedReader has sucked in too much data? (Does the server wait for the Ok before continuing?) Are you sure that you're allowed to read from the underlying InputStreamReader object after attaching a BufferedReader object?
Note that TCP is free to deliver your data in ten byte chunks over the next two weeks :) -- because encapsulation, differing hardware, and so forth makes it very difficult to tell the size of packets that will eventually be used between two peers, most applications that are looking for a specific amount of data will instead populate their buffers using code somewhat like this (stolen from Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, an excellent book; pity the code is in C and your code is in Java, but the principle is the same):
ssize_t /* Read "n" bytes from a descriptor */
readn(int fd, void *ptr, size_t n)
{
size_t nleft;
ssize_t nread;
nleft = n;
while (nleft > 0) {
if ((nread = read(fd, ptr, nleft)) < 0) {
if (nleft == n)
return(-1); /* error, return -1 */
else
break; /* error, return amount read so far */
} else if (nread == 0) {
break; /* EOF */
}
nleft -= nread;
ptr += nread;
}
return(n - nleft); /* return >= 0 */
}
The point to take away is that filling your buffer might take one, ten, or one hundred calls to read(), and your code must be resilient against slight changes in network capabilities.