Update chat client JList

Question

I have a client and server app and Want to update the JList evertime a client joins or leaves.
I also want to implement private chat later on. I know i can send a vector with the names of the clients to each client and update the list, but if im gonna do private chat, how can I enable clients to click on the list and when they select a peer to chat with, thier able to make and i/o stream and that with that person.
I was thinking that I can make and additional ObjectInputStream/ObjectOutputStream and send the entire client object from the server side. That object would be "SocketThread" which is a class i made to handle each multiple client connection. The server side has Server.java, SocketThread.java, ChatProtocol.java
This is the Thread that represents each client on the server side.
vsockets is a Vector that adds each client object to the vector so the server can echo each client message to every other client.
public SocketThread(Socket socket) {
            this.socket = socket;
            start();
        public void run()
        try {
            socket.setSoTimeout(60*1000);   // Client sends "alive" message in keep alive thread every
            out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);
            in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( socket.getInputStream()));
            ChatProtocol cp = new ChatProtocol();
            inputLine = in.readLine();
            UserID = cp.processInput(inputLine);
            out.println("Rabbit's Socket Server, NY!");    // Welcome Message
            System.out.println("* "+UserID + " joined the server!");
            for ( i=0;i<Server.vsockets.size();i++)
                SocketThread temp  = (SocketThread)Server.vsockets.elementAt(i);
                temp.out.println("* "+UserID + " joined the server!"); //no "\n" server tokenizer adds it already
            while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)
                if(!inputLine.equals("alive")){
                outputLine = cp.processInput(inputLine);
                for (i = 0; i< Server.vsockets.size(); i++)
                    SocketThread temp = (SocketThread)Server.vsockets.elementAt(i);
                    temp.out.println(outputLine);
        }How would I go about implementing private chat. I think it has something to do with object serialization. Not sure how to do it.
thanx

Answer 1

Hello Jino!
I think u r working in the right direction.
I think it is better to have a vector there at client to represent the current users and u fill its elements when u send the notification for newuser logged in and remove the entry when any user left notification is there.
I hope u got the idea.
Best of Luck.
Ahmad Jamal.