To demonstrate full Java client/server applet connectivity, an applet server is necessary. This chapter initiates the development of a Java HTTP server. Before beginning the server, however, you need some background knowledge of socket programming. This chapter begins with a socket overview and is followed by an exploration of Java's socket classes. The remainder of the chapter will delve into constructing a Java HTTP Web server and a client/server applet.
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
The computers on the Internet are connected by the TCP/IP protocol. In the 1980s, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government funded the University of California at Berkeley to provide a UNIX implementation of the TCP/IP protocol suite. What was developed was termed the socket interface, although you might hear it called the Berkeley-socket interface or just Berkeley sockets. Today, the socket interface is the most widely used method for accessing a TCP/IP network.
A socket is nothing more than a convenient abstraction. It represents a connection point into a TCP/IP network, much like the electrical sockets in your home provide a connection point for your appliances. When two computers want to converse, they each use a socket. One computer is termed the server-it opens a socket and listens for connections. The other computer is termed the client; it calls the server socket to start the connection. To establish a connection, all that's needed is a destination address and a port number.
Each computer in a TCP/IP network has a unique address. Ports represent individual connections within that address. This is analogous to corporate mail-each person within a company shares the same address, but a letter is routed within the company by the person's name. Each port within a computer shares the same address, but data is routed within each computer by the port number. When a socket is created, it must be associated with a specific port-this is known as binding to a port.
Sockets have two major modes of operation: connection-oriented and connectionless. Connection-oriented sockets operate like a telephone; they must establish a connection and a hang up. Everything that flows between these two events arrives in the same order it was sent. Connectionless sockets operate like the mail-delivery is not guaranteed, and multiple pieces of mail may arrive in a different order than they were sent.
Which mode to use is determined by an application's needs. If reliability is important, then connection-oriented operation is better. File servers need to have all their data arrive correctly and in sequence. If some data was lost, the server's usefulness would be invalidated. Some applications-a time server, for example-send discrete chunks of data at regular intervals. If the data became lost, the server would not want the network to retry until the data was sent. By the time the data arrived, it would be too old to have any accuracy. When you need reliability, be aware that it does come with a price. Ensuring data sequence and correctness requires extra processing and memory usage; this extra overhead can slow down the response times of a server.
Connectionless operation uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). A datagram is a self- contained unit that has all the information needed to attempt its delivery. Think of it as an envelope-it has a destination and return address on the outside and contains the data to be sent on the inside. A socket in this mode does not need to connect to a destination socket; it simply sends the datagram. The UDP protocol promises only to make a best-effort delivery attempt. Connectionless operation is fast and efficient, but not guaranteed.
Connection-oriented operation uses the Transport Control Protocol (TCP). A socket in this mode needs to connect to the destination before sending data. Once connected, the sockets are accessed using a streams interface: open-read-write-close. Everything sent by one socket is received by the other end of the connection in exactly the same order it was sent. Connection-oriented operation is less efficient than connectionless, but it's guaranteed.
Sun Microsystems has always been a proponent of internetworking, so it isn't surprising to find rich support for sockets in the Java class hierarchy. In fact, the Java classes have significantly reduced the skill needed to create a sockets program. Each transmission mode is implemented in a separate set of Java classes. The connection-oriented classes will be discussed first.
The connection-oriented classes within Java have both a client and a server representative. The client half tends to be the simplest to set up, so it will be covered first.
Listing 9.1 shows a simple client application. It requests an HTML document from a server and displays the response to the console.
Listing 9.1. A simple socket client.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
/**
* An application that opens a connection to a Web server and reads
* a single Web page from the connection.
* NOTE: "merlin" is the name of my local machine.
*/
public class SimpleWebClient {
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
{
// Open a client socket connection
Socket clientSocket1 = new Socket("merlin", 80);
System.out.println("Client1: " + clientSocket1);
// Get a Web page
getPage(clientSocket1);
}
catch (UnknownHostException uhe)
{
System.out.println("UnknownHostException: " + uhe);
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.err.println("IOException: " + ioe);
}
}
/**
* Request a Web page using the passed client socket.
* Display the reply and close the client socket.
*/
public static void getPage(Socket clientSocket)
{
try
{
// Acquire the input and output streams
DataOutputStream outbound = new DataOutputStream(
clientSocket.getOutputStream() );
DataInputStream inbound = new DataInputStream(
clientSocket.getInputStream() );
// Write the HTTP request to the server
outbound.writeBytes("GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n");
// Read the response
String responseLine;
while ((responseLine = inbound.readLine()) != null)
{
// Display each line to the console
System.out.println(responseLine);
// This code checks for EOF. There is a bug in the
// socket close code under Win 95. readLine() will
// not return null when the client socket is closed
// by the server.
if ( responseLine.indexOf("</HTML>") != -1 )
break;
}
// Clean up
outbound.close();
inbound.close();
clientSocket.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("IOException: " + ioe);
}
}
}
| Note |
The examples in this chapter are coded as applications so as to avoid security restrictions. Run the code from the command line java ClassName. |
Recall that a client socket issues a connect to a listening server socket. Client sockets are created and connected by using a constructor from the Socket class. The following line creates a client socket and connects it to a host:
Socket clientSocket = new Socket("merlin", 80);
The first parameter is the name of the host you want to connect
to; the second parameter is the port number. A host name specifies
only the destination computer. The port number is required to
complete the transaction and allow an individual application to
receive the call. In this case, 80 was specified, the well-known
port number for the HTTP protocol. Other well-known port numbers
are shown in Table 9.1. Port numbers are not mandated by any governing
body, but are assigned by convention-this is why they are said
to be "well known."
| Service | |
| echo | |
| daytime | |
| ftp | |
| telnet | |
| smtp | |
| finger | |
| http | |
| pop3 |
Because the Socket class is connection oriented, it provides a streams interface for reads and writes. Classes from the java.io package should be used to access a connected socket:
DataOutputStream outbound = new DataOutputStream( clientSocket.getOutputStream() );
DataInputStream inbound = new DataInputStream( clientSocket.getInputStream() );
Once the streams are created, normal stream operations can be performed:
outbound.writeBytes("GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n);
String responseLine;
while ( (responseLine = inbound.readLine()) != null)
{
System.out.println(responseLine);
}
The above code snippet requests a Web page and echoes the response to the screen. When the program is done using the socket, the connection needs to be closed:
outbound.close();
inbound.close();
clientSocket.close();
Notice that the socket streams are closed first. All socket streams should be closed before the socket is closed. This application is relatively simple, but all client programs follow the same basic script:
Using a server socket is only slightly more complicated, as explained in the following section.
Listing 9.2 is a partial listing of a simple server application. The complete server example can be found on the CD-ROM in SimpleWebServer.java.
Listing 9.2. A simple server application.
/**
* An application that listens for connections and serves a simple
* HTML document.
*/
class SimpleWebServer {
public static void main(String args[])
{
ServerSocket serverSocket = null;
Socket clientSocket = null;
int connects = 0;
try
{
// Create the server socket
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(80, 5);
while (connects < 5)
{
// Wait for a connection
clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
//Service the connection
ServiceClient(clientSocket);
connects++;
}
serverSocket.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("Error in SimpleWebServer: " + ioe);
}
}
public static void ServiceClient(Socket client)
throws IOException
{
DataInputStream inbound = null;
DataOutputStream outbound = null;
try
{
// Acquire the streams for IO
inbound = new DataInputStream( client.getInputStream());
outbound = new DataOutputStream( client.getOutputStream());
// Format the output (response header and tiny HTML document)
StringBuffer buffer = PrepareOutput();
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = inbound.readLine()) != null)
{
// If end of HTTP request, send the response
if ( inputLine.equals("") )
{
outbound.writeBytes(buffer.toString());
break;
}
}
}
finally
{
// Clean up
System.out.println("Cleaning up connection: " + client);
outbound.close();
inbound.close();
client.close();
client.close();
}
}
Servers do not actively create connections. Instead, they passively listen for a client connect request and then provide their services. Servers are created with a constructor from the ServerSocket class. The following line creates a server socket and binds it to port 80:
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(80, 5);
The first parameter is the port number on which the server should listen. The second parameter is optional. The API documentation indicates that this parameter is a listen time, but in traditional sockets programming the listen function's second parameter is the listen stack depth. As it turns out, this is also true for the second constructor parameter. A server can receive connect requests from many clients at the same time, but each call must be processed one at a time. The listen stack is a queue of unanswered connect requests. The above code instructs the socket driver to maintain the last five connect requests. If the constructor omits the listen stack depth, a default value of 50 is used.
Once the socket is created and listening for connections, incoming connections are created and placed on the listen stack. The accept() method is called to lift individual connections off the stack:
Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
This method returns a connected client socket used to converse with the caller. No conversations are ever conducted over the server socket itself. Instead, the server socket will spawn a new socket in the accept() method. The server socket is still open and queuing new connection requests.
Like the client socket, the next step is to create an input and output stream:
DataInputStream inbound = new DataInputStream( clientSocket.getInputStream() );
DataOutputStream outbound = new DataOutputStream( clientSocket.getOutputStream() );
Normal I/O operations can now be performed by using the newly created streams. This server waits for the client to send a blank line before sending its response. When the conversation is finished, the server closes the streams and the client socket. At this point, the server tries to accept more calls. What happens when there are no calls waiting in the queue? The method will wait for one to arrive. This behavior is known as blocking. The accept() method will block the server thread from performing any other tasks until a new call arrives. When five connects have been serviced, the server exits by closing its server socket. Any queued calls will be canceled.
All servers follow the same basic script:
Figure 9.1 summarizes the steps needed for client/server connection-oriented applications.
Figure 9.1: Client and server connection-oriented applications.
The application just presented is known as an iterative server because the code accepts a client connection and completely processes it before it will accept another connection. More complex servers are concurrent. Instead of accepting connections and immediately processing them, a concurrent server spawns a new thread to process each new request, so it seems as though the server is processing many requests simultaneously. All commercial Web servers are concurrent servers.
Unlike connection-oriented classes, the datagram versions of the client and server behave in nearly identical manners-the only difference occurs in implementation. The same class is used for both client and server halves. The following lines create client and server datagram sockets:
DatagramSocket serverSocket = new DatagramSocket( 4545 );
DatagramSocket clientSocket = new DatagramSocket();
The server specifies its port using the lone constructor parameter 4545. Since the client will call the server, the client can use any available port. The omitted constructor parameter in the second call instructs the operating system to assign the next available port number. The client could have requested a specific port, but the call would fail if some other socket had already bound itself to that port. It's better not to specify a port unless the intent is to be a server.
Since streams can't be acquired for communication, how do you talk to a DatagramSocket? The answer lies in the DatagramPacket class.
The DatagramPacket class is used to receive and send data over DatagramSocket classes. The packet class contains connection information as well as the data. As was explained earlier, datagrams are self-contained transmission units. The DatagramPacket class encapsulates these units. The following lines receive data from a datagram socket:
DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(new byte[512], 512);
clientSocket.receive(packet);
The constructor for the packet needs to know where to place the received data. A 512-byte buffer was created and passed to the constructor as the first parameter. The second constructor parameter was the size of the buffer. Like the accept() method in the ServerSocket class, the receive() method will block until data is available.
Sending datagrams is really very simple; all that's needed is
a complete address. Addresses are created and tracked by using
the InetAddress class. This class has no public constructors,
but it does contain several static methods that can be used to
create an instance of the class. The following list shows the
public methods that create InetAddress class instances:
| Public InetAddress Creation Methods |
InetAddress getByName(String host); |
Getting the local host is useful for informational purposes, but only the first two methods are actually used for sending packets. Both getByName() and getAllByName() require the name of the destination host. The first method merely returns the first match it finds. The second method is needed because a computer can have more than one address. When this occurs, the computer is said to be multi-homed. The computer has one name, but multiple ways to reach it.
All the creation methods are marked as static. They must be called as follows:
InetAddress addr1 = InetAddress.getByName("merlin");
InetAddress addr2[] = InetAddress.getAllByName("merlin");
InetAddress addr3 = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
Any of these calls can throw an UnknownHostException. If a computer is not connected to a Domain Name Server (DNS) or if the host is really not found, an exception will be thrown. If a computer does not have an active TCP/IP configuration, then getLocalHost() is likely to fail with this exception as well.
Once an address is determined, datagrams can be sent. The following lines transmit a String to a destination socket:
String toSend = "This is the data to send!");
byte[] sendbuf = new byte[ toSend.length() ];
toSend.getBytes( 0, toSend.length(), sendbuf, 0 );
DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket( sendbuf, sendbuf.length, addr, port);
clientSocket.send( sendPacket );
First, the string must be converted to a byte array. The getBytes() method takes care of the conversion. Next, a new DatagramPacket instance must be created. Notice the two extra parameters at the end of the constructor. Since this will be a send packet, the address and port of the destination must also be placed into the packet. An applet may know the address of its server, but how does a server know the address of its client? Remember that a datagram is like an envelope-it has a return address. When any packet is received, the return address can be extracted from the packet by using getAddress() and getPort(). This is how a server would respond to a client packet:
DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket( sendbuf, sendbuf.length,
recvPacket.getAddress(), recvPacket.getPort() );
serverSocket.send( sendPacket );
Unlike connection-oriented operation, datagram servers are actually less complicated than the datagram client.
The basic script for datagram servers is as follows:
Listing 9.3 shows a simple datagram echo server. It will echo back any packets it receives.
Listing 9.3. A simple datagram echo server.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class SimpleDatagramServer
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
DatagramSocket socket = null;
DatagramPacket recvPacket, sendPacket;
try
{
socket = new DatagramSocket(4545);
while (socket != null)
{
recvPacket= new DatagramPacket(new byte[512], 512);
socket.receive(recvPacket);
sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(
recvPacket.getData(), recvPacket.getLength(),
recvPacket.getAddress(), recvPacket.getPort() );
socket.send( sendPacket );
}
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
System.out.println("Error in SimpleDatagramServer: " + se);
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("Error in SimpleDatagramServer: " + ioe);
}
}
}
The corresponding client uses the same process with one exception: A client must initiate the conversation. The basic recipe for datagram clients is as follows:
Figure 9.2 summarizes the steps needed for client/server datagram applications. The symmetry between client and server is evident from this picture; compare Figure 9.2 with Figure 9.1.
Figure 9.2 : Client and server datagram applications.
Listing 9.4 shows a simple datagram client. It reads user input strings and sends them to the echo server from Listing 9.3. The echo server will send the data right back, and the client will print the response to the console.
Listing 9.4. A simple datagram client.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class SimpleDatagramClient
{
private DatagramSocket socket = null;
private DatagramPacket recvPacket, sendPacket;
private int hostPort;
public static void main(String[] args)
{
DatagramSocket socket = null;
DatagramPacket recvPacket, sendPacket;
try
{
socket = new DatagramSocket();
InetAddress hostAddress = InetAddress.getByName("merlin");
DataInputStream userData = new DataInputStream( System.in );
while (socket != null)
{
String userString = userData.readLine();
if (userString == null || userString.equals(""))
return;
byte sendbuf[] = new byte[ userString.length() ];
userString.getBytes(0, userString.length(), sendbuf, 0);
sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(
sendbuf, sendbuf.length, hostAddress, 4545 );
socket.send( sendPacket );
recvPacket= new DatagramPacket(new byte[512], 512);
socket.receive(recvPacket);
System.out.write(recvPacket.getData(), 0,
recvPacket.getLength());
System.out.print("\n");
}
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
System.out.println("Error in SimpleDatagramClient: " + se);
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("Error in SimpleDatagramClient: " + ioe);
}
}
}
All the examples so far have been Java applications. Running these in an applet presents an extra complication: security.
When writing applications, you don't need to be concerned with security exceptions. This changes when the code under development is executed from an applet. Netscape Navigator 2.0 uses very stringent security measures where sockets are concerned. An applet may open a socket only back to the host name from which it was loaded. If any other connection is attempted, a SecurityException will be thrown.
Datagram sockets don't open connections, so how is security ensured for these sockets? When an inbound packet is received, the host name is checked. If the packet did not originate from the server, a SecurityException is immediately thrown. Obviously, sending comes under the same scrutiny. If a datagram socket tries to send to any destination except the server, a SecurityException is thrown. These restrictions apply only to the address, not the port number. Any port number on the host may be used.
All the socket techniques demonstrated so far will be developed further in this chapter's project.
This project at first glance seems a bit ambitious, but writing a rudimentary Web server is not as hard as it sounds. Client applets need an HTTP Web server so they can open sockets. If an applet is loaded into Netscape from a hard drive, then no socket activity is allowed to take place. A simple solution is to write an HTTP server application. Once written, additional server threads can be added to provide all types of back-end connectivity. This project will add a multipurpose datagram protocol that will be used for live data in both Chapter 10, "Native Methods and Java," and 11, "Building a Live Data Applet."
Before diving into the project, you need some background information on the HTTP protocol. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) has been in use on the World Wide Web since 1990. All applet-bearing Web pages are sent over the net with HTTP. The server will support a subset of version 1.0 in that only file requests will be handled. As long as Netscape page requests can be fulfilled, the server will have accomplished its goal.
HTTP uses a stream-oriented (TCP) socket connection. Typically, port 80 is used, but other port numbers can be substituted. All the protocol is sent in plain-text format. An example of a conversation was demonstrated in Listings 9.1 and 9.2. The server listens on port 80 for a client request, which takes this format:
GET FILE HTTP/1.0
The first word is referred to as the "method" of the
request. Table 9.2 lists all the request methods for HTTP/1.0.
| Method | Use |
| GET | Retrieve a file |
| HEAD | Retrieve only file information |
| POST | Send data to the server |
| PUT | Send data to the server |
| DELETE | Delete a resource |
| LINK | Link two resources |
| UNLINK | Unlink two resources |
The second parameter of a request is a file path. Each of the following URLs is followed by the request that will be formulated and sent:
HTTP://www.qnet.com/
GET / HTTP/1.0
HTTP://www.qnet.com/index.html
GET /index.html HTTP/1.0
HTTP://www.qnet.com/classes/applet.html
GET /classes/applet.html HTTP/1.0
The request does not end until a blank line containing only a carriage return (\r) and a line feed (\n) is received. After the method line, a number of optional lines can be sent. Netscape Navigator 2.0 will produce the following request:
GET / HTTP/1.0
Connection: Keep-Alive
User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (Win95; I)
Host: merlin
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
Responses use a header similar to the request:
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-type: text/html
Content-Length: 128
Like the request, the response header is not complete until a
blank line is sent containing only a carriage return and a line
feed. The first line contains a version identification string,
followed by a status code indicating the results of the request.
Table 9.3 lists all the defined status codes. The server will
send only two of these: 200 and 404. The text that follows the
status code is optional. It may be omitted, or, if present, it
might not match the definitions given in the table.
| Optional Text Description | |
| OK | |
| Created | |
| Accepted | |
| No Content | |
| Multiple Choices | |
| Moved Permanently | |
| Moved Temporarily | |
| Not Modified | |
| Bad Request | |
| Unauthorized | |
| Forbidden | |
| Not Found | |
| Internal Server Error | |
| Not Implemented | |
| Bad Gateway | |
| Service Unavailable |
Immediately after the response header, the requested file is sent. When the file is completely transmitted, the socket connection is closed. Each request-response pair consumes a new socket connection.
That's enough information to construct a basic Web server. Full information on the HTTP protocol can be retrieved from HTTP://www.w3.org/.
The basic Web server will follow the construction of the SimpleWebServer from Listing 9.2. Many improvements will have to be made to method and response handling. The simple server does not parse or store the request header as it arrives. The new Web server will have to parse and store the requests for later processing. To do this, you need a class to contain an HTTP request.
Listing 9.5 shows the complete HTTPrequest class. The class must contain all the information that could be conveyed in a request header.
Listing 9.5. The HTTPrequest class.
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;
import NameValue;
/**
* This class maintains all the information from an HTTP request
*/
public class HTTPrequest
{
public String version;
public String method;
public String file;
public Socket clientSocket;
public DataInputStream inbound;
public NameValue headerpairs[];
/**
* Create an instance of this class
*/
public HTTPrequest()
{
version = null;
method = null;
file = null;
clientSocket = null;
inbound = null;
headerpairs = new NameValue[0];
}
/**
* Add a name/value pair to the internal array
*/
public void addNameValue(String name, String value)
{
try
{
NameValue temp[] = new NameValue[ headerpairs.length + 1 ];
System.arraycopy(headerpairs, 0, temp, 0, headerpairs.length);
temp[ headerpairs.length ] = new NameValue(name, value);
headerpairs = temp;
}
catch (NullPointerException npe)
{
System.out.println("NullPointerException while adding name-value: " + Ânpe);
}
}
/**
* Renders the contents of the class in String format
*/
public String toString()
{
String s = method + " " + file + " " + version + "\n";
for (int x = 0; x < headerpairs.length; x++ )
s += headerpairs[x] + "\n";
return s;
}
}
The NameValue class simply stores two strings: name and value. You can find the source code for it on the CD-ROM in NameValue.java. When a new pair needs to be added, a new array is allocated. The new array receives a copy of the old array as well as the new member. The old array is then replaced with the newly created entity.
Two data fields in the class are not directly part of an HTTP request. The clientSocket member allows response routines to get an output stream, and the inbound member allows easy closure after a request has been processed. The remaining members are all part of an HTTP request. The method toString() allows class objects to be printed using "plus notation." The following line will display the contents of a request by invoking the toString() method:
System.out.println("Request: " + request);
Now that the request container is finished, it's time to populate it.
This is the main class for the server. It can be broken down into request and response routines. Since this is a server, the request routines will be activated first. After some validation, the response routines will be called. Listing 9.6 provides the routines to parse an HTTP request.
Listing 9.6. HTTP request routines.
/**
* Read an HTTP request into a continuous String.
* @param client a connected client stream socket.
* @return a populated HTTPrequest instance
* @exception ProtocolException If not a valid HTTP header
* @exception IOException
*/
public HTTPrequest GetRequest(Socket client)
throws IOException, ProtocolException
{
DataInputStream inbound = null;
HTTPrequest request = null;
try
{
// Acquire an input stream for the socket
inbound = new DataInputStream(client.getInputStream());
// Read the header into a String
String reqhdr = readHeader(inbound);
// Parse the string into an HTTPrequest instance
request = ParseReqHdr(reqhdr);
// Add the client socket and inbound stream
request.clientSocket = client;
request.inbound = inbound;
}
catch (ProtocolException pe)
{
if ( inbound != null )
inbound.close();
throw pe;
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
if ( inbound != null )
inbound.close();
throw ioe;
}
return request;
}
/**
* Assemble an HTTP request header String
* from the passed DataInputStream.
* @param is the input stream to use
* @return a continuous String representing the header
* @exception ProtocolException If a pre HTTP/1.0 request
* @exception IOException
*/
private String readHeader(DataInputStream is)
throws IOException, ProtocolException
{
String command;
String line;
// Get the first request line
if ( (command = is.readLine()) == null )
command = "";
command += "\n";
// Check for HTTP/1.0 signature
if (command.indexOf("HTTP/") != -1)
{
// Retrieve any additional lines
while ((line = is.readLine()) != null && !line.equals(""))
command += line + "\n";
}
else
{
throw new ProtocolException("Pre HTTP/1.0 request");
}
return command;
}
/**
* Parsed the passed request String and populate an HTTPrequest.
* @param reqhdr the HTTP request as a continous String
* @return a populated HTTPrequest instance
* @exception ProtocolException If name,value pairs have no ':'
* @exception IOException
*/
private HTTPrequest ParseReqHdr(String reqhdr)
throws IOException, ProtocolException
{
HTTPrequest req = new HTTPrequest();
// Break the request into lines
StringTokenizer lines = new StringTokenizer(reqhdr, "\r\n");
String currentLine = lines.nextToken();
// Process the initial request line
// into method, file, version Strings
StringTokenizer members = new StringTokenizer(currentLine, " \t");
req.method = members.nextToken();
req.file = members.nextToken();
if (req.file.equals("/")) req.file = "/index.html";
req.version = members.nextToken();
// Process additional lines into name/value pairs
while ( lines.hasMoreTokens() )
{
String line = lines.nextToken();
// Search for separating character
int slice = line.indexOf(':');
// Error if no separating character
if ( slice == -1 )
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Invalid HTTP header: " + line);
}
else
{
// Separate at the slice character into name, value
String name = line.substring(0,slice).trim();
String value = line.substring(slice + 1).trim();
req.addNameValue(name, value);
}
}
return req;
}
The method readHeader() interrogates the inbound socket stream searching for the blank line. If the request is not in HTTP/1.0 format, this method will throw an exception. Otherwise, the resulting String is passed to parseReqHdr() for processing.
These routines will reject any improperly formatted requests, including requests made in the older HTTP/0.9 format. Parsing makes heavy use of the StringTokenizer class found in the java.util package.
Normally, it would be preferable to close the inbound stream as
soon as the request has been completely read. If this is done,
then subsequent output attempts will fail with an IOException.
This is why the inbound stream is placed into the HTTPrequest
instance. When the output has been completely sent, both the output
and the input streams will be closed.
| Caution |
Do not be tempted to close an inbound stream after all input has been read. Closing the input stream will cause subsequent output attempts to fail with an IOException. Close both streams only after all socket operations are finished. |
Currently, the server makes no use of the additional lines in an HTTP request header. The HTTPrequest class does save them in an array, however, so they can be used in future enhancements. Wherever possible, the server has been written with future enhancements in mind.
Once you've built the request, you need to form a response. Listing 9.7 presents the response routines used by the server.
Listing 9.7. HTTP response routines.
/**
* Respond to an HTTP request
* @param request the HTTP request to respond to.
* @exception ProtocolException If unimplemented request method
*/
private void implementMethod(HTTPrequest request)
throws ProtocolException
{
try
{
if (debug && level < 4)
System.out.println("DEBUG: Servicing:\n" + request);
if ( (request.method.equals("GET") ) ||
(request.method.equals("HEAD")) )
ServicegetRequest(request);
else
{
throw new ProtocolException("Unimplemented method: " + Ârequest.method);
}
}
catch (ProtocolException pe)
{
sendNegativeResponse(request);
throw pe;
}
}
/**
* Send a response header for the file and the file itself.
* Handles GET and HEAD request methods.
* @param request the HTTP request to respond to
*/
private void ServicegetRequest(HTTPrequest request)
throws ProtocolException
{
try
{
if (request.file.indexOf("..") != -1)
throw new ProtocolException("Relative paths not supported");
String fileToGet = "htdocs" + request.file;
FileInputStream inFile = new FileInputStream(fileToGet);
if (debug & level < 4)
{
System.out.print("DEBUG: Sending file ");
System.out.print(fileToGet + " " + inFile.available());
System.out.println(" Bytes");
}
sendFile(request, inFile);
inFile.close();
}
catch (FileNotFoundException fnf)
{
sendNegativeResponse(request);
}
catch (ProtocolException pe)
{
throw pe;
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("IOException: Unknown file length: " + ioe);
sendNegativeResponse(request);
}
}
/**
* Send a negative (404 NOT FOUND) response
* @param request the HTTP request to respond to.
*/
private void sendNegativeResponse(HTTPrequest request)
{
DataOutputStream outbound = null;
try
{
// Acquire the output stream
outbound = new DataOutputStream(
request.clientSocket.getOutputStream());
// Write the negative response header
outbound.writeBytes("HTTP/1.0 ");
outbound.writeBytes("404 NOT_FOUND\r\n");
outbound.writeBytes("\r\n");
// Clean up
outbound.close();
request.inbound.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("IOException while sending -rsp: " + ioe);
}
}
/**
* Send the passed file
* @param request the HTTP request instance
* @param inFile the opened input file stream to send\
*/
private void sendFile(HTTPrequest request, FileInputStream inFile)
{
DataOutputStream outbound = null;
try
{
// Acquire an output stream
outbound = new DataOutputStream(
request.clientSocket.getOutputStream());
// Send the response header
outbound.writeBytes("HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\n");
outbound.writeBytes("Content-type: text/html\r\n");
outbound.writeBytes("Content-Length: " + inFile.available() + "\r\n");
outbound.writeBytes("\r\n");
// Added to allow Netscape to process header properly
// This is needed because the close is not recognized
sleep(500);
// If not a HEAD request, send the file body.
// HEAD requests solicit only a header response.
if (!request.method.equals("HEAD"))
{
byte dataBody[] = new byte[1024];
int cnt;
while ((cnt = inFile.read(dataBody)) != -1)
outbound.write(dataBody, 0, cnt);
}
// Clean up
outbound.flush();
outbound.close();
request.inbound.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("IOException while sending file: " + ioe);
}
}
Only GET and HEAD requests are honored. The primary goal is to provide an applet server, not a full-featured Web server. File requests are all that's needed for applet loading, though additional handlers can certainly be added for other request methods. The serviceGetRequest() function handles all responses. When the input stream for a file is acquired, the file is opened. At this point, the routine knows whether the file exists and its size. Once a valid file is found, the sendFile() function can be called. The file is read and sent in 1K blocks. This keeps memory usage down while seeking to balance the number of disk accesses attempted. Negative responses are sent only for errors occurring after the request has been built. As a consequence, improperly formatted requests will generate no response.
The response routines rely on ProtocolExceptions to signal error conditions. When one of these exceptions reaches the implementMethod() function, a negative response is sent. Notice the catch clause in serviceGetRequest(). The ProtocolException must be caught and thrown again, or the following IOException will catch the event. This is because ProtocolException is a child class of IOException. If it had been placed after the IOException, the compiler would have generated an error:
BasicWebServer.java:303: catch not reached.
The remainder of the BasicWebServer application can be found on
the CD-ROM. The
remaining code calls the input routine getRequest()
and then the output routine implementMethod()
for each client connection.
The next section develops a client applet that will be loaded with the server just constructed. Another service thread will be added to the server to conduct a datagram socket protocol with the client.
Applets need to communicate with a server for a variety of applications. What is needed is a generic protocol that any applet can use to communicate with its server. This protocol should not be connection oriented because of the additional load that would be placed on a server. Datagrams present a lighter load and allow the same socket to be used no matter how many actual connections are being serviced. What is envisioned is a broadcast capability for data. It isn't reasonable for applets to query a server every five seconds to see whether data has changed. The server should be able to send to all of its connections whenever the data changes. With this in mind, the Datagram Transfer Protocol (DGTP) was developed. The primary requirements of this protocol were as follows:
Figure 9.3 shows a client applet using DGTP to communicate with a server. Notice how the HTTP data connection does not extend to the applet. The browser spawns the applet from the data received from the server.
Figure 9.3 : DGTP communication in the client/server model
The DGTP protocol uses a header much like HTTP; its basic methods are REGISTER, UNREGISTER, DATA, PING, and PONG. The two register methods accomplish hooking and unhooking. PING and PONG are currently unused, but could provide a mechanism to periodically check the connection list. The DATA method facilitates the transfer capability. To allow any object to use DGTP services, a standard interface was developed. These interfaces specify the set of functions that an object must use to communicate with DGTP service threads. Listing 9.8 shows the client and server interfaces.
Listing 9.8. DGTP client and server interfaces.
public interface LiveDataNotify
{
public String getDestHost();
public int getDestPort();
public void recvNewData(byte[] newDataBlock);
public void connectRefused();
}
public interface LiveDataServer
{
public boolean ValidateRegistrant(ClientAddr user);
public void NewRegistrant(ClientAddr user);
public void DropRegistrant(ClientAddr user);
public void recvNewData(byte[] newDataBlock, DatagramPacket fromWho);
}
Notice that both the client and the server have a method to receive blocks of data. The client has methods to specify the destination host and port, and the server has methods to validate and register new connections. The DGTP client is covered first.
Since listening for receive will block until there is data, the registration requests will have to be sent using a different thread. The first thing the client's run() method does is to start the registration thread. At that point, it can begin receiving data. Listing 9.9 displays a partial listing of the DGTP client. The complete source code for the client and the registration threads is on the CD-ROM in DGTpclient.java.
Listing 9.9. The DGTpclient class.
/**
* The runmethod for the client. Start the register thread and
* begin listening for incoming packets.
*/
public void run()
{
DatagramPacket packet = null;
try
{
regThread.start();
while (socket != null)
{
packet = new DatagramPacket(new byte[512], 512);
socket.receive(packet);
try
{
parsePacketData(packet);
}
catch (ProtocolException pe)
{
System.out.println("ProtocolException: " + pe);
}
}
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("IOException: in DGTpclient: " + ioe);
}
}
/**
* Handle a DGTP incoming header
* @param packet the incoming packet to parse
* @exception ProtocolException
* @exception IOException
*/
public void parsePacketData(DatagramPacket packet)
throws IOException, ProtocolException
{
String command = null;
ByteArrayInputStream barray = null;
DataInputStream is = null;
barray = new ByteArrayInputStream(
packet.getData(), 0, packet.getLength() );
is = new DataInputStream( barray );
command = readHeader(is);
StringTokenizer lines, cmds;
lines = new StringTokenizer(command, "\r\n");
cmds = new StringTokenizer(lines.nextToken(), " \t");
String ver = cmds.nextToken();
String cmd = cmds.nextToken();
if ( cmd.equals("PING") )
send("PONG" + cmds.nextToken());
else if ( cmd.equals("REGISTER") )
{
lastResponse = cmds.nextToken();
registered = true;
if ( !lastResponse.equals("CONFIRM") )
{
dataClient.connectRefused();
socket.close();
socket = null;
}
}
else if ( cmd.equals("UNREGISTER") )
{
lastResponse = cmds.nextToken();
if ( lastResponse.equals("CONFIRM") )
{
registered = false;
socket.close();
socket = null;
}
}
else if ( cmd.equals("DATA") )
{
int length = Integer.valueOf(cmds.nextToken()).intValue();
byte[] data = new byte[length];
try
{
is.readFully(data);
dataClient.recvNewData(data);
}
catch (EOFException eof)
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Server packet too short: " + eof);
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"While reading server data: " + ioe);
}
}
else
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Unknown DGTP command: " + cmd);
}
is.close();
}
/**
* Unregister the DGTpclient
*/
public void terminate()
{
unregThread = new ClientUnregistration(this);
unregThread.start();
}
The read routines are largely the same as the HTTP server's. What is significant is the translation of the packet data to stream format. Once that is done, the header can be parsed in the same manner as an HTTP request. To perform the translation, ByteArrayInputStream is used; this class is extremely useful when working with byte arrays. Once the array is in a stream format, it can be turned into a DataInputStream-the same format the BasicWebServer used to read its requests.
The terminate() function spawns a new thread to send the UNREGISTER command because the main client thread is blocked in a receive call.
Since DGTP is a datagram protocol, the server will be very similar to the client. There are two main changes, the largest of which occurs in the parsePacketData() handler function. Listing 9.10 shows the data parse function for the DGTPServer class. The complete source code can be found on the CD-ROM in DGTPServer.java.
Listing 9.10. DGTPServer data parsing routine.
/**
* Process all incoming packets
* @param packet contains the DGTP request
* @exception ProtocolException
* @exception IOException
*/
public void ParsePacketData(DatagramPacket packet)
throws IOException, ProtocolException
{
String command = null;
ByteArrayInputStream barray = null;
DataInputStream is = null;
String cmd = null;
barray = new ByteArrayInputStream(
packet.getData(), 0, packet.getLength() );
is = new DataInputStream( barray );
command = readHeader(is);
try
{
StringTokenizer lines = new StringTokenizer(command, "\r\n");
StringTokenizer cmds = new StringTokenizer(lines.nextToken(), " \t");
String ver = cmds.nextToken();
cmd = cmds.nextToken();
if ( cmd.equals("PING") )
{
ClientAddr addr = new ClientAddr(
packet.getAddress(), packet.getPort());
send(addr, "PONG" + cmds.nextToken());
}
else if ( cmd.equals("REGISTER") )
{
ClientAddr addr = new ClientAddr(
packet.getAddress(), packet.getPort());
if (!Clients.containsKey(addr))
{
if ( dataServer.ValidateRegistrant(addr) )
{
Clients.put(addr, addr);
send(addr, "REGISTER CONFIRM");
dataServer.NewRegistrant(addr);
}
else
{
send(addr, "REGISTER DENIED");
}
}
else
{
send(addr, "REGISTER CONFIRM");
}
}
else if ( cmd.equals("UNREGISTER") )
{
int port = Integer.valueOf(cmds.nextToken()).intValue();
dumpUser( new ClientAddr(packet.getAddress(), port) );
}
else if ( cmd.equals("DATA") )
{
int length = Integer.valueOf(cmds.nextToken()).intValue();
byte[] data = new byte[length];
try
{
is.readFully(data);
dataServer.recvNewData(data, packet);
}
catch (EOFException eof)
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Client packet too short: " + eof);
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"While reading client data: " + ioe);
}
}
else
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Unknown DGTP command: " + cmd);
}
}
catch (NoSuchElementException ne)
{
throw new ProtocolException(
"Command arg mismatch: " + cmd);
}
is.close();
}
The changes occur when adding new users. The server thread will receive a REGISTER request, which it will pass to the interface object for validation. If the interface object accepts the new user, a REGISTER CONFIRM response is sent, and the interface object is alerted to the addition. If the user is rejected, a REGISTER DENIED response is sent. The second change is one of omission. The run() method for the server will not spawn a registration thread. Otherwise, it is identical to the client's run() method.
The server keeps track of user connections in a Hashtable. The ClientAddr class object encapsulates the address and port as well as providing a hash key. This allows the server to add a new user quickly. The code for the REGISTER method creates the address and checks to see whether it's already present. Multiple REGISTER requests may have been sent before the REGISTER CONFIRM packet could travel back to the sender. If the server doesn't have this connection yet, it adds the address to the Clients list. Listing 9.11 shows the ClientAddr class. Pay particular attention to the hashCode() and equals() functions; they allow the object to act as a hash key.
Listing 9.11. The ClientAddr class.
import java.net.InetAddress;
public class ClientAddr
{
public InetAddress address;
public int port;
ClientAddr(InetAddress addr, int hostPort)
{
address = addr;
port = hostPort;
}
public int hashCode()
{
int result = address.hashCode();
result += port;
return result;
}
public boolean equals(Object obj)
{
return (obj != null) && (obj instanceof ClientAddr) &&
(address.equals(((ClientAddr)obj).address)) &&
(port == ((ClientAddr)obj).port);
}
}
Since this is a broadcast server, there is a varied array of send methods embedded in the class. The DGTP server has two main send routines:
sendData(ClientAddr dest, byte[] data, int srcOffset, int length);
send(ClientAddr dest, String toSend);
The first routine sends the byte array as a DGTP DATA block. The second routine sends the passed String as a DGTP command header. All the remaining send routines call sendData() to do the actual transmission. This is the code for one version of sendToUsers():
public void sendToUsers(byte[] data, int srcOffset, int length)
{
for (Enumeration e = Clients.elements(); e.hasMoreElements();)
sendData((ClientAddr)e.nextElement(), data, srcOffset, length);
}
This routine uses an Enumeration object to loop through the client
hashtable and send to each member. All the remaining send methods
are variations on this theme. Some send to all users; some send
to a specific subset of users. These are all the public send methods:
Public Send Methods in DGTPServer |
sendToUsers(String toSend); |
Now that the threads are in place, it's time to apply them in the actual client/server applet.
The client applet will be simple in appearance. The emphasis here will be on using the DGTP protocol. Figure 9.4 shows the applet in action.
Figure 9.4 : A simple client applet display.
The purpose of this applet is to display the number of active connections to this page. Whenever a new user connects, the display will automatically update to reflect the new count. Likewise, when a user disconnects, the count will update. Listing 9.12 shows the client applet class.
Listing 9.12. A client applet.
import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import DGTpclient;
public class SimpleClientApplet extends Applet
implements LiveDataNotify
{
private boolean init = false;
DGTpclient ct = null;
int destPort;
String destHost = null;
String numUsers = "Unknown at this time";
String users = null;
public void init()
{
if ( init == false )
{
init = true;
resize(500,500);
String strPort = getParameter("PORT");
if ( strPort == null )
{
System.out.println("ERROR: PORT parameter is missing");
strPort = "4545";
}
destPort = Integer.valueOf(strPort).intValue();
destHost = getDocumentBase().getHost();
}
}
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
g.drawString("Registered Users: " + getUsers(), 0, 100);
}
public String getDestHost()
{
return destHost;
}
public int getDestPort()
{
return destPort;
}
public synchronized void recvNewData(byte[] newDataBlock)
{
users = new String(newDataBlock, 0);
repaint();
}
public synchronized String getUsers()
{
if (users != null)
{
StringTokenizer cmds = new StringTokenizer(users, " \t");
if (cmds.nextToken().equals("CLIENTS"))
numUsers = cmds.nextToken();
}
return numUsers;
}
public void start()
{
ct = new DGTpclient(this);
ct.start();
}
public void stop()
{
System.out.println("SimpleClientApplet.stop()");
ct.terminate();
}
public void connectRefused()
{
}
}
The applet layers a simple protocol on top of DGTP. Whenever the server detects a change in the number of users, it sends a DATA block with the following text:
CLIENTS number CRLF
The applet receives the new DATA block and converts it to a String in recvNewData(). Note that this routine as well as getUsers() is marked as synchronized. This prevents the applet from attempting to read the String while DGTP is updating it.
The applet uses an applet parameter to know which port the server is monitoring. The following line reads the PORT parameter:
String strPort = getParameter("PORT");
The server host name is retrieved from the document itself:
destHost = getDocumentBase().getHost();
This is all the information needed to establish a server connection.
| Using gethost() over a dial-up connection |
If you connect to the Internet through a dial-up account, then you might have trouble with this application because of a host name issue. Specifically, when a dial-in PPP connection is made, your computer is assigned an IP address by the provider. This address is displayed by the server when it is started. Users on the Internet can now reach your server by typing in your IP address: HTTP://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ This will access your server, and pages can be sent. The trouble arises when your applet attempts to receive data from your server. The call to getDocumentBase().getHost() will return the IP address that the user typed in to reach your server:
When the server sends data to the applet, the host name on the data will be that of the service provider. Netscape will flag this as a security violation and raise the dreaded SecurityException. The solution is to enter the actual connection name into the initial URL, but determining this name is a problem. The easiest method I've found is to go ahead and use the IP address initially. When the exception is raised, open the Java console to discover the actual connection name. Use this name instead, and your applet will work wonderfully. |
The PORT parameter needs to be coded into the HTML applet file so the applet knows on which port the server is listening. The HTML tag for this applet looks like this:
<applet
codebase="/classes"
code="SimpleClientApplet.class"
width=500
height=500
>
<param name="PORT" value="4545">
</applet>
Because the BasicWebServer project was written in Java, it's trivial to add an instance of the DGTPServer. The problem is that some object needs to implement the LiveDataServer interface. The base server class could be changed to add this behavior, but then it would have to be rewritten any time you wanted a new service thread. A better solution is to create a separate thread whose only purpose is to spawn and communicate with the DGTPServer. To this end, the NumUsersServer class was created. It really doesn't do much, but it does create the needed interface and enable simple integration with the Web server. Listing 9.13 shows the NumUsersServer.
Listing 9.13. The NumUsersServer class.
import java.lang.Thread;
import java.net.DatagramPacket;
import DGTPServer;
import LiveDataServer;
import ClientAddr;
public class NumUsersServer extends Thread
implements LiveDataServer
{
private DGTPServer servThread = null;
public NumUsersServer(int hostPort)
{
servThread = new DGTPServer(this, hostPort);
}
public void run()
{
servThread.start();
while(true) yield();
}
public boolean ValidateRegistrant(ClientAddr user)
{
return true;
}
public void NewRegistrant(ClientAddr user)
{
servThread.sendToUsers("CLIENTS " + servThread.Clients.size());
}
public void DropRegistrant(ClientAddr user)
{
servThread.sendToUsers("CLIENTS " + servThread.Clients.size());
}
public void recvNewData(byte[] newDataBlock, DatagramPacket fromWho)
{
System.out.println("Receive data block...discarding");
}
}
The run() method starts the DGTP server and then enters into an infinite while loop. It calls the yield() function to avoid interfering with other active threads.
The thread is now added to the BasicWebServer class in the start() method:
// Create the server socket
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(HTTP_PORT, 5);
// Create and start any additional
// server thread services here
st = new NumUsersServer(4545);
st.start();
The project is now finished, so compile all the source code and start the server. If you maintained the directory structure of the CD-ROM, you should be able to start the server and connect to it. The client applet classes are under htdocs/classes. The default HTML document is in htdocs/index.html.
In this chapter, you have learned about socket abstraction as well as the Java implementation of sockets. After some basic client/server applications, a full HTTP server is undertaken. You should have a working knowledge of HTTP and an appreciation for socket applet security. The last part of the chapter introduces the DGTP protocol for applet/server interaction. This protocol will be reused in Chapter 11, "Building a Live Data Applet," as the basis for a live data server, but first, you must learn to work with native methods for database access.