PrintWriter problems

[mickylad]

I have a PrintWriter with auto-flush set to true, that I am using to write out responses to HTTP requests. For some reason, the PrintWriter will write out fixed strings, but not variables.

This creates the writer:

    private Socket socket = null;
    private InputStreamReader input = null;
    private OutputStream output = null;
    private BufferedReader reader = null;
    private PrintWriter writer = null;

    HTTPThread(Socket client)
    {
        try {
            
            socket = client;
            
            input = new InputStreamReader(client.getInputStream());
            reader = new BufferedReader(input);
            
            output = client.getOutputStream();
            writer = new PrintWriter(output, true);
            
        } catch (IOException e) {
            
            // Error accessing socket streams
            System.out.print("Error accessing streams on socket: "+ client.getInetAddress() + ":" + client.getPort());
        }
    }

This code successfully prints both strings:

                        String response = "Hello!";
                        writer.printf("Tracer");
                        writer.printf(response);

This code doesn't print anything:

                        String response = "Hello!";
                        writer.printf(response);

This code doesn't print anything:

                        String response = "Hello!";
                        writer.printf(response);
                        writer.printf("Tracer");

I have no SSCCE, as the class is ~300 lines long. It is really just a number of nested if statements, which decide which parameters to pass to the function that creates the response string.

Do you have any suggestions for why this could be happening?

Thanks,
Michael

[Fubarable]

Do you flush and/or close the writer object?

[mickylad]

I close the writer, input stream and output stream in that order at the end of the function I call writer.printf() in.

I've also tried adding calls to flush() before and after calls to printf() despite the auto-flush, but they don't seem to change anything.

[Fubarable]

I close the writer, input stream and output stream in that order at the end of the function I call writer.printf() in.

I've also tried adding calls to flush() before and after calls to printf() despite the auto-flush, but they don't seem to change anything.

Hm, then you may have a bug buried in your code somewhere. An SSCCE would help us to help you.

[mickylad]

Ok thank you, I understand. I will take another look at my program and return with an SSCCE if I still can't figure this out.

[mickylad]

After a stressful trawl through my code I've found it boils down to a String I have called version. This is assigned from the sub-string after the last white-space character in the request-line, which is read in by the reader:

    String requestline = (String) reader.readLine();
    ...
    version = requestline.substring(requestline.lastIndexOf(" ")+1, requestline.length());

Then it is used in getStatusLine() as the beginning of the returned response String:

public String getStatusLine(String code) {
    
    String reason = WebServer.responsecodes.getProperty(code);
    
    if(reason == null) {
        
        code = "500";
        reason = "Internal Server Error";
    }
    
    //trace
    System.out.println(version);
    
    return (version + " " + code + " " + reason + "\r\n");
}

And finally printed at some pointed in the thread's run() method:

writer.printf(getStatusLine("200"));

At first it was initialized inside the run() method and passed as a parameter to getStatusLine(), but I have now changed it to a public global variable.

I can assign version to anything as long as it does not begin with "HTTP/2.0" or "HTTP/1.", or as long as something else has been printed before it. I have no idea why this might be, apart from some in-built Java protocol I don't know about, but it's quite an issue for me since all HTTP responses start with the HTTP version!

Here's an SSCCE, just run it and type localhost:8080 as a URL into your browser:

import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;

public class Tester
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            ExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
            ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(8080);
            while (true)
            {
                Socket client = server.accept();
                Runnable r = new TestThread(client);
                scheduler.execute(r);               
            }
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}


import java.io.*;
import java.net.Socket;

public class TestThread implements Runnable
{
    private Socket socket = null;
    private OutputStream output = null;
    private PrintWriter writer = null;
    
    TestThread(Socket client)
    {
        try {
            socket = client;
            
            output = client.getOutputStream();
            writer = new PrintWriter(output, true);
            
        } catch (IOException e) {
            
            // Error accessing socket streams
            System.out.print("Error accessing streams on socket: "+ client.getInetAddress() + ":" + client.getPort());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void run()
    {
        try {
            /* These all work */
            //writer.printf("HTTP/2.");
            //writer.printf("HTTP/0.9");     
            //writer.printf("will this work? HTTP/1.");
            //writer.printf("Not a HTTP version..");
            //writer.printf("HTTP/0.9");
            
            /* These don't unless a valid String precedes them */
            //writer.printf("HTTP/1.hellothere");
            //writer.printf("HTTP/1.1");
            writer.printf("HTTP/2.0");
            
            // Close the streams
            writer.close();
            output.close();
            
        } catch (IOException e) {
            
            // I/O exception
            System.out.print("I/O exception on socket: "+ socket.getInetAddress() + ":" + socket.getPort());
        }
    }
}

All help is hugely appreciated!

[mickylad]

I should say, PrintWriter can write those Strings to System.out, but not to my Socket output stream. Again, I have no idea.

[Fubarable]

I'm sure it writes it to the socket, it's just that the web page probably interprets the text different than you're expecting.

[mickylad]

Yeah, I had that thought after posting but I'm still not sure how to solve it. Gonna have to sleep on it, thanks for your input!

[mickylad]

The answer was pretty obvious; the browser doesn't write out HTTP requests but acts on them, so it was working but I just couldn't see anything (adding headers or a file after the request would display correctly). Solved!