Hello everyone. I don't normally post on fora but I am really stuck!
THE PROBLEM.
I need to set up a server with multiple clients talking to each other. Sounds easy? Just a matter of setting up some Sockets with DataInputStream/DataOutputStream and some threads. Unfortunately I am having difficulty with this. Here are the steps I am taking to create my application:
Steps:
Get a client and a server to talk to each other. (I can do this)
Get multiple clients talking independently to a server. (I can do this)
Get multiple clients talking to each other via a server. (CAN'T GET PAST THIS STEP!)
As above, but with clients allocated turns to post in round-robin fashion.
As above, but with client input validated.
If someone could give me advice or a pointer to a resource to solve my problem I would be very grateful. For example: should I be using a Multicast rather than DataOutputStream to send messages from a server to simultaneous multiple clients?
cheers
Craig W
03-24-2004, 02:01 PM
cjard
there should be any round robining.
you should ahve this:
A pair of SocketLinker classes.. both are runnable and operate in their own thread
a main thread that accepts connections and spawns pairs of SocketLinkers
an socket linkers job is simple:
Read everything from the inputstream and write it to the output stream
you have 2 clients, A and B
and these aer represented by the sockets to which they are connected, socketA and socketB
you create a pair of socket linkers like this. remember a socket linker takes an input and output stream as creation parameters then slips into a simple loop that forwards all input to the output
new SocketLinker(socketA.getInputStream(), socketB.getOutputStream();
new SocketLinker(socketB.getInputStream(), socketA.getOutputStream();
heres a simple loop for stream forwarding:
Code:
//inputstream is called is, output is os
byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
for(int bytesRead = is.read(buffer); bytesRead != -1; bytesRead = is.read(buffer);{
os.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
}
thats it... now can you see how it links the 2 clients? the input stream of client A (what he sends to teh server) is linked to the output stream of client B (what he gets frpom the server), and vice versa
-
ill leave you to batter your head with this :)
03-24-2004, 02:03 PM
cjard
shoot, i forgot to say that you make your sovket linkers implements Runnable interface, then put the linking loop in the run() method
then to start 2 new threads:
new Thread(new SocketLinker(A_IS,B_OS)).start()
new Thread(new SocketLinker(B_IS,A_OS)).start()
note you mustnt put:
new Thread(new SocketLinker(A_IS,A_OS)).start()
new Thread(new SocketLinker(B_IS,B_OS)).start()
because that simply sends A's data back to him and the same for b.. do you see?
