Java - Networking

The term network programming refers to writing programs that

execute across multiple devices (computers), in which the devices are
all connected to each other using a network.

The [Link] package of the J2SE APIs contains a collection of classes

and interfaces that provide the low-level communication details,
allowing you to write programs that focus on solving the problem at
hand.

The [Link] package provides support for the two common network
protocols −

 TCP − TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol, which

allows for reliable communication between two applications. TCP
is typically used over the Internet Protocol, which is referred to
as TCP/IP.
 UDP − UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol, a connection-
less protocol that allows for packets of data to be transmitted
between applications.

This chapter gives a good understanding on the following two subjects

−

 Socket Programming − This is the most widely used concept in

Networking and it has been explained in very detail.
 URL Processing − This would be covered separately. Click here to
learn about URL Processing in Java language.

Socket Programming
Sockets provide the communication mechanism between two
computers using TCP. A client program creates a socket on its end of
the communication and attempts to connect that socket to a server.

When the connection is made, the server creates a socket object on

its end of the communication. The client and the server can now
communicate by writing to and reading from the socket.
The [Link] class represents a socket, and the
[Link] class provides a mechanism for the server
program to listen for clients and establish connections with them.

The following steps occur when establishing a TCP connection

between two computers using sockets −

 The server instantiates a ServerSocket object, denoting which

port number communication is to occur on.
 The server invokes the accept() method of the ServerSocket
class. This method waits until a client connects to the server on
the given port.
 After the server is waiting, a client instantiates a Socket object,
specifying the server name and the port number to connect to.
 The constructor of the Socket class attempts to connect the
client to the specified server and the port number. If
communication is established, the client now has a Socket
object capable of communicating with the server.
 On the server side, the accept() method returns a reference to
a new socket on the server that is connected to the client's
socket.

After the connections are established, communication can occur using

I/O streams. Each socket has both an OutputStream and an
InputStream. The client's OutputStream is connected to the server's
InputStream, and the client's InputStream is connected to the
server's OutputStream.

TCP is a two-way communication protocol, hence data can be sent

across both streams at the same time. Following are the useful
classes providing complete set of methods to implement sockets.

ServerSocket Class Methods

The [Link] class is used by server applications to obtain
a port and listen for client requests.

The ServerSocket class has four constructors −

[Link]. Method & Description

public ServerSocket(int port) throws IOException

1 Attempts to create a server socket bound to the specified port. An exception
occurs if the port is already bound by another application.

public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog) throws IOException

2 Similar to the previous constructor, the backlog parameter specifies how many
incoming clients to store in a wait queue.

public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog, InetAddress address) throws

IOException
Similar to the previous constructor, the InetAddress parameter specifies the
3
local IP address to bind to. The InetAddress is used for servers that may have
multiple IP addresses, allowing the server to specify which of its IP addresses
to accept client requests on.

public ServerSocket() throws IOException

4 Creates an unbound server socket. When using this constructor, use the bind()
method when you are ready to bind the server socket.

If the ServerSocket constructor does not throw an exception, it

means that your application has successfully bound to the specified
port and is ready for client requests.

Following are some of the common methods of the ServerSocket class

−

[Link]. Method & Description

public int getLocalPort()

Returns the port that the server socket is listening on. This method is useful if
1
you passed in 0 as the port number in a constructor and let the server find a port
for you.

public Socket accept() throws IOException

Waits for an incoming client. This method blocks until either a client connects
2 to the server on the specified port or the socket times out, assuming that the
time-out value has been set using the setSoTimeout() method. Otherwise, this
method blocks indefinitely.

public void setSoTimeout(int timeout)

3 Sets the time-out value for how long the server socket waits for a client during
the accept().
 public void bind(SocketAddress host, int backlog)
Binds the socket to the specified server and port in the SocketAddress object.
4
Use this method if you have instantiated the ServerSocket using the no-
argument constructor.

When the ServerSocket invokes accept(), the method does not return
until a client connects. After a client does connect, the ServerSocket
creates a new Socket on an unspecified port and returns a reference
to this new Socket. A TCP connection now exists between the client
and the server, and communication can begin.

Socket Class Methods

The [Link] class represents the socket that both the client and
the server use to communicate with each other. The client obtains a
Socket object by instantiating one, whereas the server obtains a
Socket object from the return value of the accept() method.

The Socket class has five constructors that a client uses to connect
to a server −

[Link]. Method & Description

public Socket(String host, int port) throws UnknownHostException,

IOException.
1 This method attempts to connect to the specified server at the specified port. If
this constructor does not throw an exception, the connection is successful and
the client is connected to the server.

public Socket(InetAddress host, int port) throws IOException

2 This method is identical to the previous constructor, except that the host is
denoted by an InetAddress object.

public Socket(String host, int port, InetAddress localAddress, int

localPort) throws IOException.
3
Connects to the specified host and port, creating a socket on the local host at the
specified address and port.

public Socket(InetAddress host, int port, InetAddress localAddress, int

localPort) throws IOException.
4
This method is identical to the previous constructor, except that the host is
denoted by an InetAddress object instead of a String.
 public Socket()
5 Creates an unconnected socket. Use the connect() method to connect this socket
to a server.

When the Socket constructor returns, it does not simply instantiate a

Socket object but it actually attempts to connect to the specified
server and port.

Some methods of interest in the Socket class are listed here. Notice
that both the client and the server have a Socket object, so these
methods can be invoked by both the client and the server.

[Link]. Method & Description

public void connect(SocketAddress host, int timeout) throws IOException

1 This method connects the socket to the specified host. This method is needed
only when you instantiate the Socket using the no-argument constructor.

public InetAddress getInetAddress()

2 This method returns the address of the other computer that this socket is
connected to.

public int getPort()

3
Returns the port the socket is bound to on the remote machine.

public int getLocalPort()

4
Returns the port the socket is bound to on the local machine.

public SocketAddress getRemoteSocketAddress()

5
Returns the address of the remote socket.

public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException

6 Returns the input stream of the socket. The input stream is connected to the
output stream of the remote socket.

public OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException

7 Returns the output stream of the socket. The output stream is connected to the
input stream of the remote socket.

public void close() throws IOException

8 Closes the socket, which makes this Socket object no longer capable of
connecting again to any server.
InetAddress Class Methods
This class represents an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Here are
following usefull methods which you would need while doing socket
programming −

[Link]. Method & Description

static InetAddress getByAddress(byte[] addr)

1
Returns an InetAddress object given the raw IP address.

static InetAddress getByAddress(String host, byte[] addr)

2
Creates an InetAddress based on the provided host name and IP address.

static InetAddress getByName(String host)

3
Determines the IP address of a host, given the host's name.

String getHostAddress()
4
Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.

String getHostName()
5
Gets the host name for this IP address.

static InetAddress InetAddress getLocalHost()

6
Returns the local host.

String toString()
7
Converts this IP address to a String.

Socket Client Example

The following GreetingClient is a client program that connects to a
server by using a socket and sends a greeting, and then waits for a
response.

Example

// File Name [Link]

import [Link].*;
import [Link].*;

public class GreetingClient {

 public static void main(String [] args) {
String serverName = args[0];
int port = [Link](args[1]);
try {
[Link]("Connecting to " + serverName + " on port " + port);
Socket client = new Socket(serverName, port);

[Link]("Just connected to " + [Link]());

OutputStream outToServer = [Link]();
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(outToServer);

[Link]("Hello from " + [Link]());

InputStream inFromServer = [Link]();
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(inFromServer);

[Link]("Server says " + [Link]());

[Link]();
} catch (IOException e) {
[Link]();
}
}
}

Socket Server Example

The following GreetingServer program is an example of a server
application that uses the Socket class to listen for clients on a port
number specified by a command-line argument −

Example

// File Name [Link]

import [Link].*;
import [Link].*;
public class GreetingServer extends Thread {
private ServerSocket serverSocket;

public GreetingServer(int port) throws IOException {

serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
[Link](10000);
}

public void run() {

while(true) {
try {
[Link]("Waiting for client on port " +
[Link]() + "...");
Socket server = [Link]();

[Link]("Just connected to " + [Link]());

DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream([Link]());

[Link]([Link]());
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream([Link]());
[Link]("Thank you for connecting to " +
[Link]()
+ "\nGoodbye!");
[Link]();

} catch (SocketTimeoutException s) {
[Link]("Socket timed out!");
break;
} catch (IOException e) {
[Link]();
break;
}
}
}

public static void main(String [] args) {

 int port = [Link](args[0]);
try {
Thread t = new GreetingServer(port);
[Link]();
} catch (IOException e) {
[Link]();
}
}
}

Compile the client and the server and then start the server as follows
−

$ java GreetingServer 6066

Waiting for client on port 6066...

Check the client program as follows −

Output

$ java GreetingClient localhost 6066

Connecting to localhost on port 6066
Just connected to localhost/[Link]:6066
Server says Thank you for connecting to /[Link]:6066
Goodbye!

Java - URL Processing

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and represents a resource
on the World Wide Web, such as a Web page or FTP directory.

This section shows you how to write Java programs that

communicate with a URL. A URL can be broken down into parts, as
follows −

protocol://host:port/path?query#ref
Examples of protocols include HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and File. The path
is also referred to as the filename, and the host is also called the
authority.

The following is a URL to a web page whose protocol is HTTP −

[Link]

Notice that this URL does not specify a port, in which case the
default port for the protocol is used. With HTTP, the default port is
80.

Constructors
The [Link] class represents a URL and has a complete set of
methods to manipulate URL in Java.

The URL class has several constructors for creating URLs, including
the following −

[Link]. Constructors & Description

public URL(String protocol, String host, int port, String file) throws
1 MalformedURLException
Creates a URL by putting together the given parts.

public URL(String protocol, String host, String file) throws

MalformedURLException
2
Identical to the previous constructor, except that the default port for the given
protocol is used.

public URL(String url) throws MalformedURLException

3
Creates a URL from the given String.

public URL(URL context, String url) throws MalformedURLException

4
Creates a URL by parsing together the URL and String arguments.

The URL class contains many methods for accessing the various
parts of the URL being represented. Some of the methods in the
URL class include the following −

[Link]. Method & Description

 public String getPath()
1
Returns the path of the URL.

public String getQuery()

2
Returns the query part of the URL.

public String getAuthority()

3
Returns the authority of the URL.

public int getPort()

4
Returns the port of the URL.

public int getDefaultPort()

5
Returns the default port for the protocol of the URL.

public String getProtocol()

6
Returns the protocol of the URL.

public String getHost()

7
Returns the host of the URL.

public String getHost()

8
Returns the host of the URL.

public String getFile()

9
Returns the filename of the URL.

public String getRef()

10
Returns the reference part of the URL.

public URLConnection openConnection() throws IOException

11 Opens a connection to the URL, allowing a client to communicate with the
resource.

Example
The following URLDemo program demonstrates the various parts of
a URL. A URL is entered on the command line, and the URLDemo
program outputs each part of the given URL.

// File Name : [Link]

import [Link];
import [Link];
public class URLDemo {

public static void main(String [] args) {

try {
URL url = new
URL("[Link]

[Link]("URL is " + [Link]());

[Link]("protocol is " + [Link]());
[Link]("authority is " + [Link]());
[Link]("file name is " + [Link]());
[Link]("host is " + [Link]());
[Link]("path is " + [Link]());
[Link]("port is " + [Link]());
[Link]("default port is " + [Link]());
[Link]("query is " + [Link]());
[Link]("ref is " + [Link]());
} catch (IOException e) {
[Link]();
}
}
}

A sample run of the this program will produce the following result −

Output

URL is [Link]
protocol is https
authority is [Link]
file name is /[Link]?language=en
host is [Link]
path is /[Link]
port is -1
default port is 443
query is language=en
ref is j2se

URLConnections Class Methods

The openConnection() method returns a [Link], an
abstract class whose subclasses represent the various types of URL
connections.

For example −

 If you connect to a URL whose protocol is HTTP, the

openConnection() method returns an HttpURLConnection
object.
 If you connect to a URL that represents a JAR file, the
openConnection() method returns a JarURLConnection object,
etc.

The URLConnection class has many methods for setting or

determining information about the connection, including the
following −

[Link]. Method & Description

Object getContent()
1
Retrieves the contents of this URL connection.

Object getContent(Class[] classes)

2
Retrieves the contents of this URL connection.

String getContentEncoding()
3
Returns the value of the content-encoding header field.

int getContentLength()
4
Returns the value of the content-length header field.

String getContentType()
5
Returns the value of the content-type header field.

int getLastModified()
6
Returns the value of the last-modified header field.

long getExpiration()
7
Returns the value of the expired header field.
 long getIfModifiedSince()
8
Returns the value of this object's ifModifiedSince field.

public void setDoInput(boolean input)

9 Passes in true to denote that the connection will be used for input. The default
value is true because clients typically read from a URLConnection.

public void setDoOutput(boolean output)

Passes in true to denote that the connection will be used for output. The
10
default value is false because many types of URLs do not support being
written to.

public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException

11
Returns the input stream of the URL connection for reading from the resource.

public OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException

12
Returns the output stream of the URL connection for writing to the resource.

public URL getURL()

13
Returns the URL that this URLConnection object is connected to.

Example

The following URLConnectionDemo program connects to a URL

entered from the command line.

If the URL represents an HTTP resource, the connection is cast to

HttpURLConnection, and the data in the resource is read one line at
a time.

// File Name : [Link]

import [Link];
import [Link];
import [Link];
import [Link];
import [Link];
import [Link];

public static void main(String [] args) {

try {
URL url = new URL("[Link]
 URLConnection urlConnection = [Link]();
HttpURLConnection connection = null;
if(urlConnection instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
connection = (HttpURLConnection) urlConnection;
}else {
[Link]("Please enter an HTTP URL.");
return;
}

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(

new InputStreamReader([Link]()));
String urlString = "";
String current;

while((current = [Link]()) != null) {

urlString += current;
}
[Link](urlString);
} catch (IOException e) {
[Link]();
}
}
}

A sample run of this program will produce the following result −

Output

$ java URLConnDemo

.....a complete HTML content of home page of [Link].....