Java - Socket Programming

Socket Programming

The basic java classes (java.net package) that supports Socket programming, namely:

o   InetAddress

o   Socket

o   ServerSocket

o   DatagramSocket

o   DatagramPacket

o   MulticastSocket

1.   The InetAddress class:

The java.net.InetAddress class is used to represent an IP address as an object. It is also used to resolve from host name to IP address (via the DNS) and vice versa.

No Constructors, instead, factory methods are provided.

The following are some of the methods of the InetAddress class.

Example 1: IP Address Resolver.

The following example first prints the Address of the current machine and then in a loop reads a host or an address from a user and resolving it.

import java.net.*;   import java.io.*;

public class IPAddressResolver {

public static void main (String args[]) {

try {

BufferedReader stdin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); InetAddress myself = InetAddress.getLocalHost(); System.out.println("MyAddress is :"+myself);

while (true) {

System.out.print("host name or IP to resolve - <exit> to quit: ");

String input = stdin.readLine();

if (input.equalsIgnoreCase("exit") break; InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(input); if (isHostName(input))

System.out.println("IP Addrsss is: "+ address.getHostAddress());

else

System.out.println("Host name is: "+ address.getHostName()); System.out.println("addresses for "+input+ " are: "); InetAddress[] addresses =

InetAddress.getAllByName(address.getHostName());

for (int i = 0; i < addresses.length; i++)

System.out.println(addresses[i]);

}                      }

catch (UnknownHostException e) {

System.out.println("Exception: "+e);           }

catch (Exception ex) {

System.out.println("Exception: "+ex);        }          }

private static boolean isHostName(String input) {

char[] ca = input.toCharArray();

for (int i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {

if (!Character.isDigit(ca[i]) && ca[i] != '.')

return true;             }

return false;            } }

TCP Sockets (Stream Sockets)

Java provides two classes for creating TCP sockets, namey, Socket and ServerSocket.

The java.net.Socket class:

This class is used by clients to make a connection with a server Socket constructors are:

Socket(String hostname, int port) Socket(InetAddress addr, int port)

Socket(String hostname, int port, InetAddress localAddr, int localPort) Socket(InetAddress addr, int port, InetAddress localAddr, int localPort)

Creating socket

Socket client = new Socket(“www.microsoft.com", 80);

Note that the Socket constructor attempts to connect to the remote server - no separate connect() method is provided.Data is sent and received with output and input streams. The Socket class has the following methods, that retruns InputStream and the OutputStream for reading and writing to the socket

public InputStream getInputStream()

public OutputStream getOutputStream() There's also a method to close a socket:

public synchronized void close()

The following methods are also provided to set socket options: void setReceiveBufferSize()

void setSendBufferSize() void setTcpNoDelay() void setSoTimeout()

The java.net.ServerSocket class

The ServerSocket class is used to by server to accept client connections The constructors for the class are:

public ServerSocket(int port)

public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog)

public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog, InetAddress networkInterface) Creating a ServerSocket

ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(80, 50);

Note: a closed ServerSocket cannot be reopened

ServerSocket objects use their accept() method to connect to a client public Socket accept()

accept() method returns a Socket object, and its getInputStream() and getOutputStream() methods provide streams for reading and writing to the client.

Note: There are no getInputStream() or getOutputStream() methods for ServerSocket

Example 2: The following examples show how to create TcpEchoServer and the corresponding

TcpEchoClient.

import java.net.*; import java.io.*; import java.util.*; public class TcpEchoServer

{

public static void main(String[] args)

{

int port = 9090;

try {

ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(port);

while(true) {

System.out.println("Waiting for clients on port " + port); Socket client = server.accept();

System.out.println("Got connection from "+client.getInetAddress()+":"+client.getPort());

BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new

InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream()));

PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(client.getOutputStream());

writer.println("Welcome to my server");     writer.flush();

String  message = reader.readLine();

while (!(message == null || message.equalsIgnoreCase("exit"))) { System.out.println("MessageReceived: "+message); writer.println(message); writer.flush();

message = reader.readLine();   }

client.close();        }        }       

catch(Exception ex) {   

                   System.out.println("Connection error: "+ex);

}        }        }       

public class TcpEchoClient

{

public static void main(String[] args) {       int port = 9090;

try {

String host = InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName(); Socket client = new Socket(host, port);

PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(client.getOutputStream()); BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream()));

BufferedReader stdin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); System.out.println(reader.readLine()); //read welcome message

String message; while (true) {

System.out.print("Enter message to echo or Exit to end : "); message = stdin.readLine();

if (message == null || message.equalsIgnoreCase("exit"))

break;

writer.println(message);            writer.flush();

System.out.println("Echo from server: "+reader.readLine()); }

client.close();          }

catch (Exception ex) {

System.out.println("Exception: "+ex);        }          }     }

Example 3: Multi-Client Tcp Servers

The following example shows how to create a multi-client TCP server.

import java.net.*; import java.io.*; import java.util.*;

public class MultiClientTcpEchoServer

{public static void main(String[] args)

{                      int port = 9090;

try {     ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(port);

while(true) {  System.out.println("Waiting for clients on port " + port);

Socket client = server.accept();

ConnectionHandler handler = new ConnectionHandler(client);

handler.start();       }

} catch(Exception ex) {          

System.out.println("Connection error: "+ex);      }        }}

class ConnectionHandler extends Thread {

private Socket client; BufferedReader reader; PrintWriter writer; static int count;

public ConnectionHandler(Socket client) { this.client = client;

System.out.println("Got connection from"+client.getInetAddress()+":"+client.getPort());

count++;

System.out.println("Active Connections = " + count);        }

public void run() {

String message=null;

try {

reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream()));

writer = new PrintWriter(client.getOutputStream());

writer.println("Welcome to my server"):    writer.flush();

message = reader.readLine();

while (!(message == null || message.equalsIgnoreCase("exit"))) {

writer.println(message); writer.flush();  message = reader.readLine();  }

client.close();   count--;           

System.out.println("Active Connections = " + count); 

} catch (Exception ex) { count--;      

System.out.println("Active Connections = " + count);  }   }   }

UDP Sockets (Datagram Sockets)

Java provides two classes for creating UDP Sockets:

·        DatagramPacket class, used to represent the data for sending and receiving.

·        DatagramSocket class for creating a socket used to send and receive DatagramPackets.

The java.net.DatagramPacket class:

Constructor for receiving:

public DatagramPacket(byte[] data, int length)

Constructor for sending :

public DatagramPacket(byte[] data, int length, InetAddress addr, int port)

Some methods provided by the DatagramPacket class are: public synchronized void setAddress(InetAddress addr) public synchronized void setPort(int port)

public synchronized void setData(byte data[]) public synchronized void setLength(int length)

The java.net.DatagramSocket class:

Constructor for sending: public DatagramSocket()

Constructor for receiving :

public DatagramSocket(int port)

public DatagramSocket(int port, InetAddress addr) Sending UDP Datagrams involves the following steps:

·        Convert the data into byte array.

·        Create a DatagramPacket using the array

·        Create a DatagramSocket using the packet and then call send() method

Receiving UDP Datagrams involves the following steps:

·        Construct a DatagramSocket object on the port on which you want to listen

·        Pass an empty DatagramPacket object to the DatagramSocket's receive() method public synchronized void receive(DatagramPacket dp)

·        The calling thread blocks until a datagram is received

·        dp is filled with the data from that datagram

·        After receiving, use the getPort() and getAddress() on the received packet to know where the packet came from. Also use getData() to retrieve the data, and getLength() to see how many bytes were in the data

The received packet could be truncated to fit the buffer

Example 4: The following examples show how to create a UdpEchoServer and the corresponding UdpEchoClient.

import java.net.*; import java.io.*;

public class UdpEchoServer

{

static final int port = 9999;

static final int packetSize = 1024;

public static void main(String args[]) throws SocketException{ DatagramPacket packet;

DatagramSocket socket;

byte[] data;

int clientPort;

InetAddress address;

String str;

int recvSize;

socket = new DatagramSocket(port); while(true){

data = new byte[packetSize];

// Create packets to receive the message

packet = new DatagramPacket(data,packetSize); System.out.println("to receive the packets or port: "+port);

try{

socket.receive(packet);

}catch(IOException ie){

System.out.println(" Could not Receive:"+ie.getMessage());

System.exit(0);

}

// get data about client in order to echo data back

address = packet.getAddress();

clientPort = packet.getPort();

recvSize = packet.getLength();

str = new String(data,0,recvSize);

System.out.println("Message from "+ address+":"+clientPort+": "+str.trim());

// echo data back to the client

packet = new DatagramPacket(data,recvSize,address,clientPort);

try{                socket.send(packet);        }

catch(IOException ex){

System.out.println("Could not Send "+ex.getMessage());

System.exit(0);

}                      }          }    }

import java.net.*; import java.io.*;

public class UdpEchoClient {

static final int packetSize = 1024;

static BufferedReader stdin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

public static void main(String args[]) throws UnknownHostException,

SocketException{

DatagramSocket socket; DatagramPacket packet; InetAddress address; String messageSend; String messageReturn; byte[] data;

int port; try {

System.out.print("Enter server name: ");

address = InetAddress.getByName(stdin.readLine()); System.out.print("Enter server port: ");

port = Integer.parseInt(stdin.readLine());

while (true) {

System.out.print("Enter message for the server or press enter to exit: "); messageSend = stdin.readLine();

if(messageSend.length() == 0){ System.exit(0); } socket = new DatagramSocket();

data = messageSend.getBytes();

packet = new DatagramPacket(data,data.length,address,port); socket.send(packet);

//packet is reinitialized to use it for recieving data = new byte[packetSize];

packet = new DatagramPacket(data,data.length); socket.receive(packet);

messageReturn = new String(data,0,packet.getLength()); System.out.println("Message Returned : "+ messageReturn);

            }                     

}catch(IOException iee){        

            System.out.println("Could not receive :           "+iee.getMessage() );

            System.exit(0);

}          }          }

3. Multicast Sockets

Multicasting is achieved in Java using the same DatagramPacket class used for normal Datagrams. This is used together with the MulticastSocket class. The MulticastSocket class is  a subclass of the DatagramSocket class, with the following methods for joining and leaving a multicast group added.

void joinGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr) void leaveGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr) void setTimeToLive(int ttl)

Example 5: The following examples shows a sample Multicast sender and receiver.

import java.io.*; import java.net.*;

public class MulticastReceiver {

static MulticastSocket receiver; static InetAddress group;

public static void main(String[] args) {

try {

group = InetAddress.getByName("224.100.0.5"); receiver = new MulticastSocket(9095); System.out.println("Joined group at 224.100.0.5"); receiver.joinGroup(group);

while (true) {

byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];

DatagramPacket recvPacket = new DatagramPacket(buffer, buffer.length);

receiver.receive(recvPacket);

String message = new String(buffer, 0, recvPacket.getLength());

if (message.length() == 0) {                       

receiver.leaveGroup(group);   receiver.close();     break;         }

System.out.println(message);   }       }                

catch (Exception ex) {                      

System.out.println("Exception: "+ ex);       }            }          }

import java.io.*; import java.net.*;

public class MulticastSender {

public static void main(String[] args) {

MulticastSocket sender; InetAddress group;

try {

group = InetAddress.getByName("224.100.0.5"); sender = new MulticastSocket(9095); sender.setTimeToLive(32);

BufferedReader stdin = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

while (true) {

System.out.print("Enter message for Multicast: ");

String message = stdin.readLine();

if (message.length() == 0) { sender.leaveGroup(group); sender.close();

break;

}

DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(message.getBytes(), message.length(), group, 9095);

sender.send(packet);

}   }

catch (Exception ex) {                                                                   System.out.println("Exception: "+ ex);                                  }                                                                   }       }