In my client/server application my client wiil communicate with the server for 2 functions: the client will either request data from the server or it will send data so the server will save it. I'm using one socket for both methods, and the method to be used is defined by the first byte sent. If the first byte is "1" it is requesting data. If it is "2", it will send data (data bytes are sent after the "2" byte). It works perfectly for sending data. But when I'm requesting data it works, as long as I don't read the socket stream in the client. It's like if I make the client read data after sending data, the server will have no data to read, and it just crashes when trying to read the data.
Here is my server code:
private const int BufferSize = 1024;
NetworkStream netstream = null;
byte[] RecData = new byte[BufferSize];
int RecBytes;
try {
netstream = clientSocket.GetStream();
int totalrecbytes = 0;
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) {
//When I get here, there is no data to read
while ((RecBytes = netstream.Read(RecData, 0, RecData.Length)) > 0) {
ms.Write(RecData, 0, RecBytes);
totalrecbytes += RecBytes;
}
byte[] bytes = ms.ToArray();
byte b = bytes[0];
switch (b) {
case 1:
//Here I gather data and put it in "stream" variable
byte[] SendingBuffer = null;
int NoOfPackets = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Ceiling(Convert.ToDouble(stream.Length) / Convert.ToDouble(BufferSize)));
int TotalLength = (int)stream.Length, CurrentPacketLength, counter = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < NoOfPackets; i++) {
if (TotalLength > BufferSize) {
CurrentPacketLength = BufferSize;
TotalLength = TotalLength - CurrentPacketLength;
}
else
CurrentPacketLength = TotalLength;
SendingBuffer = new byte[CurrentPacketLength];
stream.Read(SendingBuffer, 0, CurrentPacketLength);
netstream.Write(SendingBuffer, 0, (int)SendingBuffer.Length);
}
netstream.Flush();
}
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine("EXCEPTION:\n" + e.ToString());
}
break;
case 2:
//Code to read data
break;
}
}
netstream.Close()
clientSocket.Close();
And here is my client code:
using (System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient clientSocket = new System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient()) {
string returnData = "";
IAsyncResult ar = clientSocket.BeginConnect("127.0.0.1", 8080, null, null);
System.Threading.WaitHandle wh = ar.AsyncWaitHandle;
try {
if (!ar.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), false)) {
clientSocket.Close();
Console.WriteLine("Timeout");
return;
}
System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream serverStream = clientSocket.GetStream();
byte b = 1;
byte[] outStream = { b };
serverStream.Write(outStream, 0, outStream.Length);
serverStream.Flush();
//If I comment following lines, the server can read sent data, but server can't otherwise
byte[] RecData = new byte[1024];
int RecBytes;
int totalrecbytes = 0;
MemoryStream MS = new MemoryStream();
while ((RecBytes = serverStream.Read(RecData, 0, RecData.Length)) > 0) {
MS.Write(RecData, 0, RecBytes);
totalrecbytes += RecBytes;
}
serverStream.Close();
clientSocket.Close();
clientSocket.EndConnect(ar);
}
catch (Exception ex) {
Console.WriteLine("Exceção: " + ex.ToString());
}
finally {
wh.Close();
}
}
So, how can I send data to server and read the response? (I tried even putting the thread to sleep after sending data, with no luck.)
Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
With some debug messages I discovered that the server do read the "1" byte that was sent, but somehow it gets stuck inside the while loop, like, the server just stops there, no more loops and it does not leave the while loop. I saw that after writing "loop" in console inside the while loop, and writing read bytes also in console. It wrote "loop" once, and the read byte.
This code worries me:
//When I get here, there is no data to read
while ((RecBytes = netstream.Read(RecData, 0, RecData.Length)) > 0) {
ms.Write(RecData, 0, RecBytes);
totalrecbytes += RecBytes;
}
You are reading until the client closes the connection (or shuts down sending, which you don't do). But the client only closes when the server has replied. The server reply will never come. It is a deadlock.
Solution: Read a single byte to determine the requests command (b).
Unrelated to the question, your "packetised" sending (NoOfPackets, ...) does not seem to serve any purpose. Just use Stream.Copy to write. TCP does not have packets.
An even better solution would be to abandon your custom TCP protocol and use an HTTP library. All these concerns just go away. There are various smaller problems with your code that are very typical to see in TCP code.
Related
In C/C++ read() on regular non-blocking network sockets will return immediately with the amount of data currently available in the buffer, up to the amount specified (so if we ask for 16 bytes and there are only 8 available at the moment, those 8 we'll get and it's up to us to call read() again and fetch all data).
In C# there's NetworkStream, which has built-in timeouts - does this mean that NetworkStream.Read() waits until either the timeout is reached or the amount of data requested is read, or will it give us any amount of data currently available in the buffer larger than 0 up to the amount requested (as the standard sockets do) even if there's time left?
It will read available data up to the number of bytes specified in the parameters, as described on MSDN, unless the stream is closed via timeout or other exception.
The Read operation reads as much data as is available, up to the number of bytes specified by the size parameter. If the remote host shuts down the connection, and all available data has been received, the Read method completes immediately and return zero bytes.
I solved it like this:
byte[] TotalData = new byte[0];
byte[] TempData = new byte[0];
using (TcpClient TCPClient = new TcpClient())
{
try
{
TCPClient.Connect(somehost, someport);
}
catch (Exception eee)
{
// Report the connection failed in some way if necessary
}
if (TCPClient.Connected)
{
using (NetworkStream clientStream = TCPClient.GetStream())
{
// You can reduce the size of the array if you know
// the data received is going to be small,
// don't forget to change it a little down too
byte[] TCPBuffer = new byte[524288];
int bytesRead = 0;
int loop = 0;
// Wait for data to begin coming in for up to 20 secs
while (!clientStream.DataAvailable && loop< 2000)
{
loop++;
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
// Keep reading until nothing comes for over 1 sec
while (clientStream.DataAvailable)
{
bytesRead = 0;
try
{
bytesRead = clientStream.Read(TCPBuffer, 0, 524288);
Array.Resize(ref TempData, bytesRead);
Array.Copy(TCPBuffer, TempData, bytesRead);
// Add data to TotalData
TotalData = JoinArrays(TotalData, TempData);
}
catch
{
break;
}
if (bytesRead == 0)
break;
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}
}
The JoinArrays() method:
byte[] JoinArrays(byte[] arrayA, byte[] arrayB)
{
byte[] outputBytes = new byte[arrayA.Length + arrayB.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(arrayA, 0, outputBytes, 0, arrayA.Length);
Buffer.BlockCopy(arrayB, 0, outputBytes, arrayA.Length, arrayB.Length);
return outputBytes;
}
The safe method is to use MemoryStream wich will make sure to wait and read all the stream to the memory , then u can use it as you like
public void SaveUserTemplate(Stream stream)
{
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
stream.CopyTo(memoryStream);
memoryStream.Position = 0;
byte[] templatePathLength = new byte[4];
memoryStream.Read(templatePathLength, 0, templatePathLength.Length);
int nBytesTemplatePathLength = BitConverter.ToInt32(templatePathLength,0);
....
CopyTo function finally calls to this function:
github.com/microsoft/referencesource
private void InternalCopyTo(Stream destination, int bufferSize)
{
Contract.Requires(destination != null);
Contract.Requires(CanRead);
Contract.Requires(destination.CanWrite);
Contract.Requires(bufferSize > 0);
byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
int read;
while ((read = Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
destination.Write(buffer, 0, read);
}
I have a little complication i encounter.
I may not be expert in TCP Connections but i hope someone here would help me.
This is my Client Code:
void Connect(String server, String message)
{
try
{
Int32 port = 8968;
TcpClient client = new TcpClient(server, port);
Byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes(curSelectedFile);
NetworkStream stream = client.GetStream();
Byte[] fileData = File.ReadAllBytes(curSelectedFile);
Byte[] msgData = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("SendFile");
Byte[] sendData = new byte[fileData.Length + msgData.Length];
// Copy data to send package.
msgData.CopyTo(sendData, 0);
fileData.CopyTo(sendData, 4);
// Send the message to the connected TcpServer.
stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
Console.WriteLine("Sent: {0}", message);
// Receive the TcpServer.response.
// Buffer to store the response bytes.
data = new Byte[256];
// String to store the response ASCII representation.
String responseData = String.Empty;
// Read the first batch of the TcpServer response bytes.
Int32 bytes = stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
responseData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data, 0, bytes);
Console.WriteLine("Received: {0}", responseData);
// Close everything.
stream.Close();
client.Close();
}
catch (ArgumentNullException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("ArgumentNullException: {0}", e);
}
catch (SocketException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("SocketException: {0}", e);
}
Console.WriteLine("\n Press Enter to continue...");
Console.Read();
}
This is my server one:
// Listen loop.
while(true)
{
using (TcpClient tcpClient = myListener.AcceptTcpClient())
{
Console.WriteLine("[Server] Acceptam client.");
using (NetworkStream networkStream = tcpClient.GetStream())
{
// Buffer for reading data
Byte[] bytes = new Byte[1024];
var data = new List<byte>();
int length;
while ((length = networkStream.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)) != 0)
{
var copy = new byte[length];
Array.Copy(bytes, 0, copy, 0, length);
data.AddRange(copy);
}
// Incercam sa vedem ce doreste clientul.
string msg = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data[0], 0, length);
if(msg.StartsWith("SendFile"))
{
using (Stream stream = new FileStream(#"C:\test.mp3", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
networkStream.Position = 4;
binaryFormatter.Serialize(networkStream, data.ToArray());
}
}
}
}
}
What i'm trying to do here:
- I want the client to send a Message.. like "SaveFile" & after this string to be the filedata.
- The server should read the client message, and to process stuff according to the Client sentstring, before doing something with the file.
I believe that i don't know how to do it.
May i have an example on how to send/receive and read certain strings from the beggining of the file? How i can put them in the byte array and how to read it... It's quite overwhelming..
PS: The current Server Code is reading the data and CAN write as i coded it, without losing any packages. But also he's writing the aditional packets i sent before i converted the bytes of the file.
networkStream.Position = 4; isn't legal, because NetworkStream is not seekable.
I would discourage you from mixing text and binary data, just because of the complication it makes in the application protocol. But if you really want to do that, you should use BinaryWriter and BinaryReader, because it can write strings to a stream which can then be read later without consuming the bytes after the string.
Then you can do something like this...
In the client:
BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(networkStream);
writer.Write("SendFile");
writer.Write(fileData.Length);
writer.Write(fileData);
In the server:
BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(networkStream);
switch (reader.ReadString())
{
case "SendFile":
{
int length = reader.ReadInt32();
byte[] fileData = reader.ReadBytes(length);
// ... then do whatever with fileData, like write to a file
break;
}
}
The BinaryWriter/Reader implementation of the length-counted string is non-standard, so if you wanted to interact with any other non-.NET code using this technique, it would be more complicated because you have to replicate/reimplement the non-standard length-counting logic yourself.
IMHO a better approach is to encode commands as fixed-length data, e.g. an 8-, 16-, or 32-bit value, which is just some integer that specifies the command. Then you can list your commands in the code as an enum type, casting to/from the network stream for the I/O. This would be more portable, easier to implement on non-.NET platforms.
So I'm writing an application in where I need to steam data from a client to my server and I've noticed some very weird behavior with how the NetworkStream.Read function behaves. I'm sending packets of about 18 bytes in length and if I make the while loop in the server Read and then Write then I get all of the packets properly. However, if I only Read and never Write then the Read does not return after a single packet. Instead, it gathers several packets before returning, saying that it received some 300+ bytes at each iteration. Does anybody know why I'm getting this behavior? I could simply write back 'a' every time but this seems a bit ghetto.
Here is the section of code:
private static void HandleClientComm(object client)
{
TcpClient tcpClient = (TcpClient)client;
NetworkStream clientStream = tcpClient.GetStream();
byte[] message = new byte[4096];
int bytesRead;
int count = 0;
while (true)
{
bytesRead = 0;
try
{
// Block until a client sends a message
bytesRead = clientStream.Read(message, 0, 4096);
}
catch
{
// A socket error has occured
break;
}
if (bytesRead == 0)
{
// The client has disconnected from the server
break;
}
Debug.print("Number of bytes: {0:D}", bytesRead);
count++;
// Message has successfully been received. Echo back.
clientStream.Write(new byte[2], 0, 1);
}
Debug.print("Count: {0:F}", count);
tcpClient.Close();
}
I am writing what is essentially an image backup server to store images. It is a one way service that will not return anything beyond a basic success or failure message to the client.
The issue that I am experienceing is that when I send a byte array through the network stream, it is being cut-off before the end of the stream at random locations. I do not have this issue when I run the server on my development machine and connect locally, but rather it only occurs when the server is deployed on a remote server.
When I send very small arrays ( < 512 bytes) the server recieves the entire stream successfully, but on streams larger than 2000 bytes I experience issues. The code for the client is as follows:
try
{
TcpClient Voice = new System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient();
//Obviously I use the remote IP when it is deployed - but have altered it for privacy.
IPEndPoint BackupServer = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), 57000);
Voice.Connect(BackupServer);
NetworkStream DataStream = Voice.GetStream();
byte[] buffer = new ASCIIEncoding().GetBytes(ImageData.GetXml());
DataStream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
DataStream.Flush();
}
catch
{
}
try
{
buffer = new byte[4096];
int read = DataStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
MessageBox.Show(new ASCIIEncoding().GetString(buffer) + " : " + read.ToString());
}
catch
{
}
The client code executes without any errors or problems regardless of the size of data I send.
And the code for the server side is as follows:
private void BackMeUp(object voice)
{
TcpClient Voice = (TcpClient)voice;
Voice.ReceiveTimeout = 30000;
NetworkStream DataStream = Voice.GetStream();
try
{
bool ShouldLoop = true;
//int loops = 0;
int loops = -1;
byte[] input = new byte[2048];
byte[] buffer = new byte[0];
//while (ShouldLoop)
while(loops != 0)
{
loops = DataStream.Read(input, 0, 2048);
for (int x = 0; x < loops; x++)
{
Array.Resize(ref buffer, buffer.Length + 1);
buffer[buffer.Length - 1] = input[x];
}
//if (loops < 2048)
//{
//ShouldLoop = false;
//break;
//}
}
while (true)
{
StringReader Reader = new StringReader(new ASCIIEncoding().GetString(buffer, 0, buffer.Length));
DataSet DS = new DataSet();
DS.ReadXml(Reader);
if (DS.Tables.Count > 0)
{
if (DS.Tables["Images"].Rows.Count > 0)
{
foreach (DataRow row in DS.Tables["Images"].Rows)
{
//
}
}
}
string response = "Got it!";
DataStream.Write(new ASCIIEncoding().GetBytes(response), 0, response.Length);
DataStream.Flush();
Voice.Close();
break;
}
}
catch (Exception Ex)
{
File.WriteAllText("Elog.txt", Ex.Message + " " + (Ex.InnerException != null ? Ex.InnerException.ToString() : " no Inner"));
Voice.Close();
}
}
The server recieves the data fine, and closes the stream when it reaches the end, however the data is cut-off and I get an error when I try to rebuild the dataset.
I have the impression this has to do with the time it takes to send the stream, and I have played around with the Close and Flush commands but I feel like I'm just shooting in the dark. Any help would be appreciated.
Concise version of question: What factors are involved with a TcpListener that could cause a) the truncation of the stream. or b) premature closing of the stream prior to all bytes being read. When the listener in question is on a remote host rather than a local server.
The Read method doesn't have to return the number of bytes that you requested, or the entire stream at once. Especially if the stream is slow, it will be returned in small chunks.
Call the Read method repeatedly, and handle the data for each block that you get. The Read method returns zero when the stream is read to the end:
buffer = new byte[4096];
do {
int read = DataStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
if (read != 0) {
// handle the first "read" bytes of the buffer (index 0 to read-1)
}
} while (read != 0);
If you know that your buffer is enough for any stream, you can fill up the buffer and handle it afterwards:
buffer = new byte[4096];
int offset = 0;
do {
int read = DataStream.Read(buffer, offset, buffer.Length - offset);
offset += read;
} while (read != 0);
// handle the first "offset" bytes of the buffer (index 0 to offset-1)
I'm creating a socket server that needs to continuously listen for incoming messages from the connected clients. Those messages will be sent in a byte[] array. I had the server working great with a StreamReader but StreamReader only works with textual represenations of the data being sent...not byte[] arrays.
Here's what I had:
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(Client.GetStream());
string line = "";
while (true)
{
line = reader.ReadLine();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
{
parentForm.ApplyText(line + "\r\n");
SocketServer.SendBroadcast(line);
}
}
I need to now convert that into a raw stream somehow that will convert the stream contents into a byte[] array but I can't seem to get a handle on it.
I tried this:
while (true)
{
var bytes = default(byte[]);
using (var memstream = new MemoryStream())
{
var buffer = new byte[512];
var bytesRead = default(int);
while ((bytesRead = reader.BaseStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
memstream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
bytes = memstream.ToArray();
}
//parentForm.ApplyText(bytes.Length + "\r\n");
}
but as you might guess, the while(true) loop doesn't quite work how I need it to. Can anyone help me with some code adjustment to make this work as I need it to. It needs to continuously listen for incoming messages, then when a message is received, it needs to do something with that message (the byte[] array) then go back to listening again.
TIA
I guess "listening continuously" is not task of reader its a task of listener. I ran into same problem when i was writing server using TcpListener. I am not sure what you want to do but i am posting solution for your "listening continuous" and reading into byte[] problem. I guess this code might help you:
TcpListener t = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Loopback, _port);
t.Start();
Console.WriteLine("Server is started and waiting for client\n\n");
byte[] buff = new byte[255];
NetworkStream stream;
TcpClient client;
while(true)
{
client = t.AcceptTcpClient();
if (!client.Connected)
return;
stream = client.GetStream();
while ((stream.Read(buff, 0, buff.Length)) != 0)
{
break;
}
if (0 != buff.Length)
break;
}
There's no need to convert anything. GetStream() returns a NetworkStream. See the sample Microsoft includes in the NetworkStream.Read Method. All you have to do is replace the myCompleteMessage.AppendFormat("{0}", Encoding.ASCII.GetString(myReadBuffer, 0, numberOfBytesRead)); line with an appropriate storage mechanism.