Question

I am trying to learn Java. I would like to implement a simple networked connect 4 game as well as a chat feature.

I want my network logic to be non blocking so after much study I found that SocketChannel is what I am after regrading my needs.

What has not made sense still is the lack of CallBack functions in SocketChannels.. Like one finds in C#.

My query for this time is: How do I deliver the data received to the Chat or Game form (JFrame)?

Some guidance is most welcome.

Answer 1

You need to use a Selector. First create a Selector to receive the events:

Selector selector = Selector.open()

Then you need to register the ServerSocketChannel with the selector:

SelectionKey acceptKey = server.register(selector, SelectionKey.OP_ACCEPT);

Then you need to use the Selector to process events as they come in (you can think of this as the “callback” part of the process:

while(true){
  //how many channel keys are available
  int available = selector.select(); 
  //select is blocking, but should only return if available is >0, this is more of a sanity check
  if(available == 0) continue;

  Iterator<SelectionKey> keys = selector.selectedKeys().iterator();
  while(keys.hasNext()){
    SelectionKey key = keys.next();
    keys.remove();
    //someone is trying to connect to the server socket
    if(key.isAcceptable())  doAccept(key); 
    //someone is sending us data
    else if(key.isReadable()) doRead(key); 
    //we are trying to (and can) send data
    else if(key.isWritable()) doWrite(key);
}

The meat will be in doAccept(), doRead(), and doWrite(). For an accept key the selection key will contain the information to create the new Socket.

doAccept(SelectionKey key){

//create the new socket
SocketChannel socket = ((ServerSocketChannel)key.channel()).accept(); 
//make it non-blocking as well
socket.configureBlocking(false);

...
//here you would likely have some code to init your game objects / communication protocol, etc. and generate an identifier object (used below).
//and be able to find the socket created above
...

//Since it is non blocking it needs a selector as well, and we register for both read and write events
SelectionKey socketKey = socket.register(selector, SelectionKey.OP_READ|SelectionKey.OP_WRITE);
// so we can identify the events as they come in
socketKey.attach(someSocketIndentifier);
}

The last line adds some object to the key so that the events received from the selector can be attributed to a connection (for example it might be a player in your game). So now you can accept new connections and you will just need to read and write.

doRead(SelectionKey key){
  //here we retrieve the key we attached earlier, so we now what to do / wheer the data is coming from
  MyIdentifierType myIdentifier = (MyIdentifierType)key.attachment();
  //This is then used to get back to the SocketChannel and Read the Data
  myIdentifier.readTheData();
}

similarly for write

doWrite(SelectionKey key){
  //here we retrieve the key we attached earlier, so we now what to do / wheer the data is coming from
  MyIdentifierType myIdentifier = (MyIdentifierType)key.attachment();
  //This is then used to get back to the SocketChannel and Read the Data
  myIdentifier.getSocketHandler().writePendingData();
}

Reading is fairly straight forward, you just create a ByteBuffer and then call the SocketChannels read(ByteBuffer) (or one of its variants) to get the data ready on the channel until its empty.

Writing is a bit trickier as you will usually want to buffer the data to be written until you recieve the write event:

class MyNetworkClass{
  ByteBuffer writeBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(1024);
  SocketChannel commchannel; //from the server accept processing

  ...

  public void write(byte[] data){
    //here the class writeBuffer object is filled with the data
    //but it isn't actually sent over the socket
    ...
  }

  public void writePendingData(){
    //here actually write the data to the socket
    commchannel.write(writeBuffer);
  }
}

Note that you will need appropriate code to manage the buffer in the class in the event it becomes full, or to modify it appropriately in the write pending method if not all of the data in the buffer is written out to the socket, as well as the various exceptions that can be thrown during the process. Hope this helps to get you started.