Book Image

Learning Network Programming with Java

Book Image

Learning Network Programming with Java

Overview of this book

Network-aware applications are becoming more prevalent and play an ever-increasing role in the world today. Connecting and using an Internet-based service is a frequent requirement for many applications. Java provides numerous classes that have evolved over the years to meet evolving network needs. These range from low-level socket and IP-based approaches to those encapsulated in software services. This book explores how Java supports networks, starting with the basics and then advancing to more complex topics. An overview of each relevant network technology is presented followed by detailed examples of how to use Java to support these technologies. We start with the basics of networking and then explore how Java supports the development of client/server and peer-to-peer applications. The NIO packages are examined as well as multitasking and how network applications can address practical issues such as security. A discussion on networking concepts will put many network issues into perspective and let you focus on the appropriate technology for the problem at hand. The examples used will provide a good starting point to develop similar capabilities for many of your network needs
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Learning Network Programming with Java
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Java NIO


Java NIO uses three core classes:

  • Buffer: This holds information that is read or written to a channel

  • Channel: This is a stream-like technique that supports asynchronous read/write operations to a data source/sink

  • Selector: This is a mechanism to handle multiple channels in a single thread

Conceptually, buffers and channels work together to process data. As shown in the next figure, data can be moved in either direction between a buffer and a channel:

The channel is connected to some external data source, while the buffer is used internally to process the data. There are several types of channels and buffers. A few of these are listed in the following tables.

The table for channels is as follows:

Channel class

Purpose

FileChannel

This connects to a file

DatagramChannel

This supports datagram sockets

SocketChannel

This supports streaming sockets

ServerSocketChannel

This listens for socket requests

NetworkChannel

This supports a network socket

AsynchronousSocketChannel...