Sending more than one message to the server.

I've made a function in the client code to send messages to the server, and i've written code so that the server is able to read them. Problem is, I can only send one message - why is that?

Here's the code:
Client Side: Sending A Message

Code:

---

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{
        try{
                writeToServer.println(outgoingMessageField.getText());
                writeToServer.flush();
        }catch(Exception e)
        {
                e.printStackTrace();
        }
}

---

Server Side: Receiving A Message

Code:

---

public void startServer()
{
        try{
                ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(8558);
                if(server.getLocalSocketAddress()!=null)
                {
                        System.out.printf("Server running.\n\tAddress:%s\n", server.getLocalSocketAddress(),server.getLocalPort());
                }else
                {
                        System.out.println("Failure");
                }
                while(true)
                {
                        Socket client = server.accept();
                        reader = new InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream());
                        buffyTheFileReader = new BufferedReader(reader);
                        incomingMessage = buffyTheFileReader.readLine();
                        if(incomingMessage.isEmpty()==false)
                        {
                                this.serverActivityNumber++;
                                System.out.printf("%d. Message Received from \t%s:\t\"%s\"\n", this.serverActivityNumber,client.getLocalAddress(),this.incomingMessage);
                        }
                               
                }//...

---

Thanks for the help!

Post the complete error you're getting, if any.

I notice that your call to ServerSocket.accept() is inside your main loop. Meaning that only one message can be sent on each client connection, and then the server goes back to waiting for a connection. Is that what you intended?

That's precisely what I didn't intend. I want to be able to send multiple messages - how would I do that.

Put the following three lines above the while loop:

Code:

---

Socket client = server.accept();
reader = new InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream());
buffyTheFileReader = new BufferedReader(reader);

---

kind regards,

Jos

@Josah - I didn't notice that! You're absolutely right. Big Waste of Memory!

OK, this is the updated version of the Server Side Code:

Code:

---

public void startServer()
        {
                try{
                        ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(8558);
                        if(server.getLocalSocketAddress()!=null)
                        {
                                System.out.printf("Server running.\n\tAddress:%s\n", server.getLocalSocketAddress(),server.getLocalPort());
                        }else
                        {
                                System.out.println("Failure");
                        }
                       
                                Socket client = server.accept();
                                this.client=client;
                                reader = new InputStreamReader(this.client.getInputStream());
                                buffy = new BufferedReader(reader);
                       
                       
                }catch(Exception e)
                {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                }
        }
       
        public void receiveMessages()
        {
                System.out.println("Ready to receive messages.");
                while(client.isConnected()==true)
                {
                                try{
                                        if((this.incomingMessage=this.buffy.readLine())!=null)
                                        {
                                                this.serverActivityNumber++;
                                                System.out.printf("%d. Message Received from %s:\t %s.\n ", this.serverActivityNumber,this.client.getLocalAddress(),this.incomingMessage);
                                        }
                                }catch(IOException e)
                                {
                                        e.printStackTrace();
                                }
                       
                }
        }

---

I have a question. The while loop has the condition that

Code:

---

while(client.isConnected()==true){//instructions}

---

. If I understand right, that means as long as the client is connected to the server, the while-loop condition is true and the instructions are executed. If I close the client side application, the while loop condition should be false and the instruction shouldn't be executed.

However, for some reason that last bit doesn't hold. When I close the client side application - the while loop still executes and it prints the stack trace. What's wrong with this condition?

Thanks for your help!

The documentation makes it sound like "hasBeenConnected" would be a better name for the "isConnected" method. It returns "true if the socket successfuly connected to a server."

I always just assume the other end of a socket is going to close it and some read or write on my end is going to throw an exception. Design your loop accordingly.