[ Exercises | Chapter Index | Main Index ]

## Solution for Programming Exercise 12.4

This page contains a sample solution to one of the exercises from Introduction to Programming Using Java.

### Exercise 12.4:

In Exercise 11.3, you wrote a network server program that can send text files from a specified directory to clients. That program used a single thread, which handled all the communication with each client. Modify the program to turn it into a multithreaded server. Use a thread pool of connection-handling threads and use an ArrayBlockingQueue to get connected sockets from the main() routine to the threads. The sample program DateServerWithThreads.java from Subsection 12.4.3 is an example of a multithreaded server that works in this way. Your server program will work with the same client program as the original server. You wrote the client program as the solution to Exercise 11.4.

Discussion

This is not a difficult exercise, given the model in DateServerWithThreads.java. My solution to Exercise 11.3, FileServer,java, already has a method

    private static void handleConnection(File directory, Socket connection)

to handle a connection with one client. The connection in this method is represented by a Socket. The File in this method represents the directory that contains the file server's files; it is set at the beginning of the program and does not change after that. So, the only thing that we have to send in the queue from the main program to the connection-handling threads is the socket that represents a given connection. So, the queue can be a queue of Sockets:

    private static ArrayBlockingQueue<Socket> connectionQueue;

A connection-handling thread runs in an infinite loop in which it takes a socket from this queue and uses it to communicate with the client. I could have moved the code from the handleConnection() method into the run method of the thread, but I decided it would be easier to have the run() method call the method that already exists. I also need to pass the directory to the handleConnection() method, so the thread needs some way of knowing the directory. I pass the directory to the thread in the thread's constructor. (An alternative would have been to make it a global variable, as I did for the queue.) Here is the class that defines the connection-handling threads:

    private static class ConnectionHandler extends Thread {
        File directory;  // The directory that contains the files
                         // that are made available on this server.
        ConnectionHandler(File directory) {
            this.directory = directory;
            setDaemon(true);
        }
        public void run() {
            while (true) {
                try {
                    Socket connection = connectionQueue.take();
                    handleConnection(directory,connection);
                }
                catch (Exception e) {
                }
            }
        }
    }

The main program creates and starts several threads belonging to this class, before it starts listening for connection requests. Other changes are straightforward. You can see the details in the complete solution, given below.

The Solution

Changes from the solution of Exercise 11.3 are shown in red:

    import java.net.*;
    import java.io.*;
    import java.util.Scanner;
    import java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue;

    /**
     * This program is a very simple network file server.  The
     * server has a list of available text files that can be
     * downloaded by the client.  The client can also download
     * the list of files.  When the connection is opened, the
     * client sends one of two possible commands to the server:
     * "index" or "get <file-name>".  The server replies to
     * the first command by sending the list of available files.
     * It responds to the second with a one-line message,
     * either "ok" or "error".  If the message is "ok", it is
     * followed by the contents of the file with the specified
     * name.  The "error" message indicates that the specified
     * file does not exist on the server. (The server can also
     * respond with the message "unknown command" if the command
     * it reads is not one of the two possible legal commands.)
     *
     * The server program requires a command-line parameter
     * that specifies the directory that contains the files
     * that the server can serve.  The files should all be
     * text files, but this is not checked.  Also, the server
     * must have permission to read all the files.
     *
     * This version of the program defines a multithreaded
     * server that uses a thread pool.  The threads handle
     * all communication with the clients.  The main program
     * simply accepts connections and puts them into a queue.
     * The connection-handling threads in the thread pool remove
     * connections from the queue as they become available.
     */
    public class ThreadedFileServer {

        static final int LISTENING_PORT = 3210;

        /**
         * The number of threads in the thread pool.
         */
        private static final int THREAD_POOL_SIZE = 10;

        /**
         * The length of the ArrayBlockingQueue of connections.
         * This should not be too big, since connections in the
         * queue are waiting for service and hopefully won't
         * spend too long in the queue.
         */
        private static final int CONNECTION_QUEUE_SIZE = 5;

        /**
         * The queue that is used to send connections from the
         * main program to the connection-handling threads.
         * A connection is represented by a connected Socket.
         */
        private static ArrayBlockingQueue<Socket> connectionQueue;

        /**
         * Main program creates the thread pool, then opens a
         * server socket to listen for connection requests.
         */
        public static void main(String[] args) {

            File directory;        // The directory from which the server
            //    gets the files that it serves.

            ServerSocket listener; // Listens for connection requests.

            Socket connection;     // A socket for communicating with a client.

            /* Check that there is a command-line argument.
             If not, print a usage message and end. */

            if (args.length == 0) {
                System.out.println("Usage:  java FileServer <directory>");
                return;
            }

            /* Get the directory name from the command line, and make
             it into a file object.  Check that the file exists and
             is in fact a directory. */

            directory = new File(args[0]);
            if ( ! directory.exists() ) {
                System.out.println("Specified directory does not exist.");
                return;
            }
            if (! directory.isDirectory() ) {
                System.out.println("The specified file is not a directory.");
                return;
            }

            /* Create the connection queue.  We want to do this before
             * creating the threads, which need to use the queue. */

            connectionQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<Socket>(CONNECTION_QUEUE_SIZE);

            /* Create the thread pool and start the threads.  The directory
             * that contains the files is passed to each thread as a
             * parameter to its constructor.  Note that there is no
             * need to keep references to the threads, since we don't have
             * to do anything with them in this program after they have
             * been started.*/

            for (int i = 0; i < THREAD_POOL_SIZE; i++) {
                ConnectionHandler worker = new ConnectionHandler(directory);
                worker.start();
            }

            /* Listen for connection requests from clients.  For each
             * connection, add the connected socket to the connection
             * queue.  The server runs until the program is terminated,
             * for example by a CONTROL-C. */

            try {
                listener = new ServerSocket(LISTENING_PORT);
                System.out.println("Listening on port " + LISTENING_PORT);
                while (true) {
                    connection = listener.accept();
                    connectionQueue.add(connection);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
                System.out.println("Server shut down unexpectedly.");
                System.out.println("Error:  " + e);
                return;
            }

        } // end main()

        /**
         * The class that defines the connection-handling threads in the
         * thread pool.  The thread runs in an infinite loop in which
         * it removes a connected socket from the connection queue and
         * calls the handleConnection() method for that socket.
         */
        private static class ConnectionHandler extends Thread {
            File directory;  // The directory that contains the files
                             // that are made available on this server.
            ConnectionHandler(File directory) {
                this.directory = directory;
                setDaemon(true);
            }
            public void run() {
                while (true) {
                    try {
                        Socket connection = connectionQueue.take();
                        handleConnection(directory,connection);
                    }
                    catch (Exception e) {
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        /**
         * This method processes process the connection with one client.
         * It creates streams for communicating with the client,
         * reads a command from the client, and carries out that
         * command.  The connection is also logged to standard output.
         * An output beginning with ERROR indicates that a network
         * error occurred.  A line beginning with OK means that
         * there was no network error, but does not imply that the
         * command from the client was a legal command.
         */
        private static void handleConnection(File directory, Socket connection) {
            Scanner incoming;       // For reading data from the client.
            PrintWriter outgoing;   // For transmitting data to the client.
            String command = "Command not read";
            try {
                incoming = new Scanner( connection.getInputStream() );
                outgoing = new PrintWriter( connection.getOutputStream() );
                command = incoming.nextLine();
                if (command.equals("index")) {
                    sendIndex(directory, outgoing);
                }
                else if (command.startsWith("get")){
                    String fileName = command.substring(3).trim();
                    sendFile(fileName, directory, outgoing);
                }
                else {
                    outgoing.println("unsupported command");
                    outgoing.flush();
                }
                System.out.println("OK    " + connection.getInetAddress()
                        + " " + command);
            }
            catch (Exception e) {
                System.out.println("ERROR " + connection.getInetAddress()
                        + " " + command + " " + e);
            }
            finally {
                try {
                    connection.close();
                }
                catch (IOException e) {
                }
            }
        }

        /**
         * This is called by the run() method in response to an "index" command
         * from the client.  Send the list of files in the server's directory.
         */
        private static void sendIndex(File directory, PrintWriter outgoing) throws Exception {
            String[] fileList = directory.list();
            for (int i = 0; i < fileList.length; i++)
                outgoing.println(fileList[i]);
            outgoing.flush();
            outgoing.close();
            if (outgoing.checkError())
                throw new Exception("Error while transmitting data.");
        }

        /**
         * This is called by the run() command in response to "get <fileName>"
         * command from the client.  If the file doesn't exist, send the message "error".
         * Otherwise, send the message "ok" followed by the contents of the file.
         */
        private static void sendFile(String fileName, File directory, PrintWriter outgoing) throws Exception {
            File file = new File(directory,fileName);
            if ( (! file.exists()) || file.isDirectory() ) {
                // (Note:  Don't try to send a directory, which
                // shouldn't be there anyway.)
                outgoing.println("error");
            }
            else {
                outgoing.println("ok");
                BufferedReader fileIn = new BufferedReader( new FileReader(file) );
                while (true) {
                    // Read and send lines from the file until
                    // an end-of-file is encountered.
                    String line = fileIn.readLine();
                    if (line == null)
                        break;
                    outgoing.println(line);
                }
            }
            outgoing.flush();
            outgoing.close();
            if (outgoing.checkError())
                throw new Exception("Error while transmitting data.");
        }

    } //end class ThreadedFileServer

[ Exercises | Chapter Index | Main Index ]