MultiThreading with Input and Output Streams

Question

Hi,
I have a problem and I think it's because I'm not coding correctly. Please help me if you can understand what I'm doing wrong.
I have a server that spawns a separate thread to go off and collect data from a serial port. It also waits to accept connections from any client and if a connection is made it will send that data to the clients connected.
There is data constantly coming in through the serial port. It is output through a DataOutputStream so when the thread is created in the server, I pipe it into a DataInputStream. I do does because I want the server to then read in the data from the inputstream and then send it out to all my clients.
So far, the way I have it set up seems to do this. But my problem occurs when I try to close a client connection. Instead of removing the socket connection it gives me an error that it can't send data to the client, but it shouldn't be sending data to the client because I just closed it. I realize this is probably because I'm still constantly receiving data from my inputstream and the connection was closed so it can't send that data to the client. I know I need to either close the stream or close my socket but I don't know where this needs to be done. I'm stuck on the correct way to fix this.
My second problem is the initial connection made to receive data from the inputstream. This is probably because I'm not very familiar with how input/output streams work. But instead of just sending the client the current data being received in real time, it'll send all the data that's buffered in the inputstream. I don't want all the data that's been collecting to go to that first client. I only want the recent data that is coming through while the client is connected. Does this make sense? Because after I make a second client connection I don't have this problem because the InputStream is no longer buffered up. Should I be using something else besides the DataInputStream?
I feel like I'm going about this the wrong way. Please advise. I'm shy about showing the code but I've included the bulk of it here in hopes that someone will see what I'm doing wrong. The only part that's left out is the thread that reads from the serial port. I don't seem to have any problems with that thread.
Thanks,
kim
===
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.comm.*;
import java.util.*;
// DataServer waits for a client connection
class DataServer
     static final int PORT = 7;
     // The ServerSocket to use for accepting new connections
     private ServerSocket ss;
     // A mapping from sockets to DataOutputStreams. This will
     // help us avoid from having to create a DataOutputStream each time
     // we want to write to a stream.
     private Hashtable outputStreams = new Hashtable();
     // The inputstream that will receive serial port data through a
     // piped inputstream
     public DataInputStream datalogger;
     // Constructor and while-accept loop all in one.
     public DataServer() throws IOException
          try {
               // Creating pipe to convert the outputstream from the
               // RS232 Thread to an inputstream for the server to read
               PipedOutputStream pout = new PipedOutputStream();
               PipedInputStream pin = new PipedInputStream(pout);
               // The inputstream that will receive data from the RS232Thread
               datalogger = new DataInputStream(pin);
               // Spawn the thread that will read data through from
               // the TINI serial port
               new RS232Thread( pout ).start();
               // Begin listening for connections and send data
               listen();
          } catch (IOException ioe) {
               System.out.println("Error >> DataServer::DataServer()");
               System.out.println(ioe.getMessage());
               ioe.printStackTrace();
          } finally {
               try     {
                    System.out.println( "Closing >> DataServer::DataServer()" );
                    datalogger.close();
               } catch (IOException i ) {
                    System.out.println( "Error2 >> DataServer::DataServer()" );
                    System.out.println(i); }
     private void listen() throws IOException
          // Create the ServerSocket
          ss = new ServerSocket( PORT );
          // Inform that the server is ready to go
          System.out.println( "Listening on " + ss );
          // Keep accepting connections forever
          while (true) {
               // Grab the next incoming connection
               Socket s = ss.accept();
               // Inform that connection is made
               System.out.println( "Connection from " + s );
               // Create a DataOutputStream for writing data to the
               // other side
               DataOutputStream dout = new DataOutputStream( s.getOutputStream() );
               // Save this stream so we don't need to make it again
               outputStreams.put( s, dout );
               // Create a new thread for this connection, and then foret
               // about it
               new ServerThread( this, s );
     // Get an enumeration of all the OutputStreams, one for each client
     // connected to the server
     Enumeration getOutputStreams() {
          return outputStreams.elements();
     // Send a message to all clients (utility routine)
     void sendToAll( byte[] b ) {
          // synchronize on this because another thread might be
          // calling removeConnection() and this would screw things up
          // while it walks through the list
          synchronized( outputStreams ) {
               // For each client...
               for (Enumeration e = getOutputStreams(); e.hasMoreElements();) {
                    // ... get the output stream ...
                    DataOutputStream dout = (DataOutputStream)e.nextElement();
                    // ... and send the message
                    try {          
                         dout.write( b );
                    } catch(IOException ie) {                     
                         System.out.println( "Error >> ServerThread::sendToAll()" );
                         System.out.println( ie );
     // remove a socket, and it's corresponding output stream, from the
     // list. This is usually called by a connection thread that has
     // discovered that the connection to the client is dead.
     void removeConnection( Socket s ) {
          // Synchronize so it doesn't mess up sendToAll() while it walks
          // down the list of all output streams
          synchronized( outputStreams ) {
               // Inform about removal
               System.out.println( "Removing connection to " + s );
               // Remove if from our hastable/list
               outputStreams.remove( s );
               // Make sure it's closed
               try {
                    s.close();
               } catch( IOException ie ) {
                    System.out.println( "Error closing " + s );
                    ie.printStackTrace();
     // main - Opens a server socket and spins off a new thread each time
     // a new client connection is accepted on this socket.
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
          System.out.println("Starting DataServer version 1.0 ...");
          try     
               new DataServer();
          catch (IOException ioe)
               System.out.println( "Error >> DataServer::main()" );
               System.out.println(ioe.getMessage());
               ioe.printStackTrace();
class ServerThread extends Thread
     //The Server that spawned this thread
     private DataServer server;
     // The Socket connected to the client
     private Socket socket;
     //Constructor
     public ServerThread( DataServer server, Socket socket )
          // save the parameters
          this.server = server;
          this.socket = socket;
          // Start up the thread
          start();
     // This runs in a separate thread when start() is called in the
     // constructor
     public void run() {
          try {
               // The inputstream receiving data from the global inputstream
               // that is piped to the RS232 Thread
               // ???? is this where i'm messing up ???
               DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream( server.datalogger );
               int num = 0;
               byte[] d = new byte[1];
               // read from the inputstream over and over, forever ...
               while( ( num = in.read(d) ) > 0 ) {
                    // ... and have the server send it to all clients
                    server.sendToAll( d );               
          } catch (IOException ioe) {
               System.out.println( "Error >> ServerThread::run()" );
               System.out.println(ioe.getMessage());
               ioe.printStackTrace();
          } finally {
               // The connection is closed for one reason or another,
               // so have the server dealing with it
               System.out.println( "Closing" );
               server.removeConnection( socket );

Answer 1

A couple of things to note...
First, you are looping infinitely in your server's constructor. Since the constructor is never completing, your server object is never completely constructed - this may cause indeterminate behaviour when you pass a reference to the server to another thread.
Second, I would recommend fixing your issues by modifying your design somewhat. The design I would recommend (read: The design I would use) is:
A server object, with a public listen method. The constructor spawns a thread to constantly read from the serial port and forward the data read back to the server, via a multicast (sendToAll) method.
The listen method sets up a server socket to accept connections, and in a loop opens client sockets and stores them in a set.
The multicast method iterates through the list of open client sockets, and for each in turn confirms that it is still open. If open, send the data down the socket's output stream; if closed, remove the socket from the set.
Note that this design includes only two threads - the main thread listens for and accepts new socket connections, while the extra thread collects data from the serial port, multicasts it to all of the open sockets, and removes all of the closed sockets. If you require to perform any other communication with the sockets, it may be necessary to create a thread for those sockets, to facilitate reading from their input streams, but in the given design, this is not necessary.
I hope this helps,
-Troy