Groovy Sockets example

I found several sites and blogs with Groovy socket examples but none that showed a matched pair of the server and the client sending data back and forth. Collecting bits from different sources, I put together the following server and client scripts using Groovy.

The sample works by sending a line of data as a request; thus the server calls readLine() and the client sends a new line character at the end of the input. The server echos the request back to the client along with a timestamp. For those that skip reading the documentation, ServerSocket's accept method "Accepts a connection and passes the resulting Socket to the closure which runs in a new Thread." so this server creates a new thread for each request.

Groovy Socket server

import java.net.ServerSocket
def server = new ServerSocket(4444)

while(true) {
    server.accept { socket ->
        println "processing new connection..." 
        socket.withStreams { input, output ->
            def reader = input.newReader()
            def buffer = reader.readLine()
            println "server received: $buffer"
            now = new Date()
            output << "echo-response($now): " + buffer + "\n"
        }
        println "processing/thread complete."
    }
}

Groovy Socket client

s = new Socket("localhost", 4444);
s.withStreams { input, output ->
  output << "echo testing ...\n"
  buffer = input.newReader().readLine()
  println "response = $buffer"
}

Give it try! Hope this helps...

Trouble connecting to Web Start client?

Do you have problems getting either the debugger or JConsole attached or connected to your Web Start client?  We worked around this for way too long until we finally found the trick: environment variable JAVAWS_VM_ARGS.

JNLP allows for vm args to be passed to the Java runtime but there is a limited set of arguments that are allowed to be passed on.  Anything not in that list of secure properties is ignored.  You can find the list of secure properties in the Developers Guide.

As I said ealier, if you want to attach a debugger or JConsole to you Web Start application, then you need to use the JAVAWS_VM_ARGS parameter.   For example, if I want to attached to my web start client for debugging purposes then I can do the following:

set JAVAWS_VM_ARGS=-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=5005


in my environment, start the client and then attach to the process using port 5005.  The same goes for attaching to JConsole, set the properties you need in JAVAWS_VM_ARGS, so com.sun.management.jmxremote.* should all be set inside JAVAWS_VM_ARGS.

Hope this help!!!