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sandman666

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Java socket server: how to stop the server in a client-friendy way

Hi there,

I got 3 classes, two are Threads ("MySocketServer" and "MySocketServerThread"), the other is my GUI ("MyGUI").
The GUI has 2 buttons "Start Server" and "Stop Server".
When I click "Start Server", a new MySocketServer-Thread is launched that does the following:
Create a vector with 5 "MySocketServerThread"-Threads that go to wait()-mode till they're waken up by "MySocketServer" (.accept()-method) the moment a client tries to connect.

This works finde, the gui isn't blocked because the server has thread of it's own and up to 5 sockets can be opened. (see code below).
My problem is the "Stop Server"-Button. Once I click that, I want
1. The "MySocketServer" to stop accepting new connections -> I've done that with a simple ServerSocket.close() method call.
2. a very clean disconnect, so that all 5 clients get a "goodbye"-message.

Here is my code:
MySocketServer:
public class SauSocketServer implements Runnable
{
  public static Vector serverThreads = new Vector();
  private ServerSocket serverSocket;

  private static int serverPort = 1701;
  public static int numberOfThreads = 5;
  public static int timeout = 0;
  public boolean runServer = false;
  private Thread runner;
  private boolean acceptCients = true;

  public MySocketServer(int port)
  {
    this.serverPort = port;
    this.runner = new Thread(this);
  }

  public void run()
  {
    /* create pool of new serverThreads and start them */
    for (int i = 0; i < this.numberOfThreads; ++i)
    {
      MySocketServerThread serverThread = new MySocketServerThread();
      new Thread(serverThread, "serverThread#" + i).start();
      serverThreads.addElement(serverThread);
    }

    /* create serverSocket and wait for new connections */
    try
    {
      this.serverSocket = new ServerSocket(this.serverPort);

      while (this.acceptCients)
      {
      Socket socket = this.serverSocket.accept();
      /* once a client tries to connect to the socket, assign one of the
       * threads running, described by the vector serverThreads
       */
      MySocketServerThread serverThread;

      boolean foundFreeThread = false;
      for (int i = 0; i < this.numberOfThreads; ++i)
      {
        serverThread = (MySocketServerThread) this.serverThreads.elementAt(i);
        if (!serverThread.running)
        {
          serverThread.wakeUp(socket);
          foundFreeThread = true;
          break;
        }
      }
      if (!foundFreeThread) System.out.println("DID NOT FIND FREE THREAD FOR CLIENT");
      }
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
      System.out.println("1. b) SocketServer returned IOException");
    }
  }

  public void startServer() throws Exception
  {
    if (!this.runner.isAlive())
    {
      this.runner.start();
    }
  }
/* here's my attempt for the stopServer-Method ... this produced very bad results */
  public void stopServer()
  {
    System.out.println("1. a) Telling SocketServer to stop accepting new clients");
    if (this.runner.isAlive())
    {
      this.acceptCients = false;
      try
      {
      this.serverSocket.close(); // using this instead of a timeout to archive faster results
      }
      catch (IOException e)
      {
      System.out.println(e);
      }

      System.out.println("1. c) Told SocketServer to stop accepting new clients");

      MySocketServerThread serverThread;

      for (int i = 0; i < this.numberOfThreads; ++i)
      {
      serverThread = (MySocketServerThread) this.serverThreads.elementAt(i);

      if (serverThread.running)
      {
        System.out.println("2. a) serverThread " + i + " is running. Telling to stop handling client");
        serverThread.keepHandlingClient = false;
      }
      else
      {
        System.out.println("serverThread " + i + " is idle.");
      }

      while (serverThread.running)
      {
        // wait for serverThread to stop running
      }
      System.out.println("3. serverThread " + i + " has stopped running and is in wait() mode now");
      serverThread.keepAlive = false;
      }
    }
  }
}

MySocketServer:

public final class MySocketServerThread implements Runnable
{
  public boolean running = false;
  public boolean keepAlive = true;
  public boolean keepHandlingClient = true;
  public Socket socket;
  public BufferedReader in;

  public MySocketServerThread()
  {
    socket = null;
  }

  public synchronized void wakeUp(Socket s)
  {
    this.socket = s;
    this.notify(); // wakes up the thread
  }

  public synchronized void run()
  {
    while (this.keepAlive)
    {
      if (this.socket == null)
      {
      try
      {
        this.wait();
      }
      catch (InterruptedException e)
      {
        continue;
      }
      }
      this.running = true;
      try
      {
      this.handleClient();
      }
      catch (Exception e)
      {
      this.running = false;
      // error handling
      }
      try
      {
      this.socket.close();
      }
      catch (IOException e)
      {
      System.out.println(e);
      }

      this.running = false;
    }
  }

  private void handleClient() throws IOException
  {
    in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(this.socket.getInputStream()));
    BufferedOutputStream outStream = new BufferedOutputStream(this.socket.getOutputStream());
    PrintStream outPrint = new PrintStream(outStream);

    int line = 0;

    boolean keepListening = true;

    this.socket.setSoTimeout(MySocketServer.timeout);

    while (this.keepHandlingClient)
    {
      line = in.readLine();
      if (line == null)
      {
      this.keepHandlingClient = false;
      }
     
      outPrint.println("You said: " + line);
      outPrint.flush();
    }
    System.out.println("This is ServerThread Nr ?. My client-listening-loop has just been broken!");
  }
}

The main problem is the BufferedReader in which is blocking the while-loop so I can't simply say this.keepHandlingClient = false to stop listening on the socket.

Any ideas?
Avatar of sandman666
sandman666

ASKER

of course int line = 0; is not right. Replace that with String line; I've been experimenting a lot with the code before I posted it here so sorry.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of lwinkenb
lwinkenb

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hey that works nicely! Didn't think it was that easy.

Thanks alot!