Networking

Intro to Networking

• Java supports communication over a network
• Allows development of client/server architectures
• Client and server can be written in Java
• Most networking stuff is in java.net

Wrapping Java's Socket Functionality

• It is recommended that a wrapper is used around Java's functionality
• One more layer of abstractions for user

What are Sockets?

• Sockets are the endpoints of a connection in a computer network.
• IP Address: Server's IP Address
• Port Number: Every IP has different ports. Typically numbers between 1024 - 65535
• Out data, In data: Actual communications will take place over a socket, which is available by importing java.net

public class ClientServerSocket
{
  private String ipAddr;
  private int portNum;
  private Socket socket;
  private DataOutputStream outData;
  private DataINputStream inData;
  ...
}

ClientServerSocket's Communication Methods

• To start, we'll support communication only of strings
• These methods aren't server or client specific
• This is used to send a string over a scoket's output stream