How to make a basic instant messaging program in pure Java [closed]

Question

Reinstating this question with a bounty! I need an example that stays online, like a real instant messenger! It needs to always be ready to receive or send a message to an arbitrary address over an arbitrary port, using TCP. The program must not quit after sending/receiving a message.

Bounty goes to whoever can give the best example of a real, usable instant messenger.

---

Looking online, all resources I found are either useless tutorials, dead threads, dead tutorials, ancient examples, or tell the programmer to use external APIs. How can I create a basic instant messenger from the ground up, only using Java SE?

There must be a way to do this, and some sample code would be appreciated. It only needs to perform the simplest tasks: Check if a compatible client is online on another computer (IP will be provided by the user) and send a TCP packet to that client, which will receive and display its contents.

Turnkey

This is not to difficult, but it is unclear if you are talking about a direct peer-to-peer connection or running a centralized IM server. Either way, one or more parties has to act as a server (listening for socket connections) and others have to act as clients. IMO the simplest model is the central server listening on a well-known (to the clients at least) IP and port. The rest is trivial. – Monde

what about two computers, both with peer and socket duties, so there is no central hub? and if it is trivial, please post it as an answer! – Turnkey

Dude, you're confusing terms. I think you mean "both with client and server duties". I'm not posting code because I don't do Java. Somebody should be along to give you some code. It is not difficult, but it won't be that short of a program. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. – Monde

yeah, sorry... I'm switching between several tasks and it's hard to get my mind straight ^^; – Turnkey

Answer 1

When this question was first asked and answered back in 2011, it was simply "Looking online, all resources I found are either useless tutorials, dead threads, or tell the programmer to use external APIs.". The provided links below met the criteria at the time. Further discussion follows in the comments.

First few Google results for "java socket chat":

• http://cs.lmu.edu/~ray/notes/javanetexamples/
• simple chatting program in java usings socket class
• http://pirate.shu.edu/~wachsmut/Teaching/CSAS2214/Virtual/Lectures/chat-client-server.html
• http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~amyles/tutorials/tcpchat/
• http://ashishmyles.com/tutorials/tcpchat/index.html
  • Internet Archive link to fix missing Java source file downloads: https://web.archive.org/web/20150623102646/http://ashishmyles.com/tutorials/tcpchat/index.html

Or from "java 8 chat client":

• https://gist.github.com/alex-zykov/b4052e3c1b6891081897

Many, many results following in the search. Pick one that suits your needs. You can even modify the Google search to only show results from the past year, if you wish.

Hydrocephalus

Why google? Supuhstar said: "Looking online, all resources I found are either useless tutorials, dead threads, or tell the programmer to use external APIs". – Kosciusko

@PingwinTux - it is unclear as to what search terms were originally used, but sometimes a valid solution is just finding a better search query. I did not only provide the search terms and a matching link, but also results that I had reviewed and validated to be in-line with what I understood to be the original request. – Hydrocephalus

The first link, the basic example does not work for me. Is there a mistake? – Astrology

I've un-accepted this answer for many reasons, including that the source code in the first link is no longer there, and the second one looks like it's from the 90s. However, I've instituted a bounty and will gladly award it and re-accept if you can fit my criteria! – Turnkey

@Supuhstar - you're still working on this? For what it's worth, the source code is still accessible by the Internet Archive (answer updated to include). Also, even dated code is still completely valid for your purposes here. Get the simple examples working first - and then you can update to make use of Java 8 features, etc., as you wish. – Hydrocephalus

@Hydrocephalus it fell by the wayside during college, and I just now got to pick it back up. Starting over with new knowledge, I want to use modern methodologies and Java 8 this time! – Turnkey

@Hydrocephalus that last example seems like a good jumping-off point. How do I know, though, who's host and who's guest? – Turnkey

@Supuhstar - Please read through the index.html before looking at the code? One instance must be started as the host, and then another instance started as a client which will connect back to the host... – Hydrocephalus

@Hydrocephalus Yes, I understand that. However, I'm trying to make a normal instant messenger. In Skype, Telegram, iMessage, etc. you don't express who is a host and who is a guest. How do I decide who is who? – Turnkey

You would run one "common" host, then connect multiple clients. What you're looking to achieve will probably not be as simple as you are hoping for. Start SIMPLE, then build from there. – Hydrocephalus

Sorry to say, but this answer sounds pretty harsh, particularly the two last sentences, which can be resumed by: "Just learn to use Google". I don't think that contributing a list of search result isn't wrong by itself, but I personally think that Stack Overflow contributors should bring a little more on the table, for example by categorizing and/or explain how these references actually help the OP... – Njord

@jwatkins - I understand and respect where you're coming from. However, when the question was first asked and answered back in 2011, it was simply "Looking online, all resources I found are either useless tutorials, dead threads, or tell the programmer to use external APIs.". The provided links met the criteria at the time - and was even the accepted answer for over 4 years. Most other questions I've seen like this would have already been closed as "Too Broad" per the SO guidelines. – Hydrocephalus

@Hydrocephalus Indeed, I do understand. It just sounds terribly awkward and innapropriate to current and future readers that this answer, in its current state, has got so much up-votes… I'm particularly worried about the fact that questions relating to "I want to develop an Instant Messenger program" are pretty common on SO… It would have cleaner, in community's interest, if the original question had been left unaltered, with what was at that time the most appropriate answer to it, and the new question had been asked as a new post. – Njord

@Hydrocephalus Yet, it's unfortunately way too late for changing that. May I suggest that you add a small introduction to your answer resuming OP's original question? This way, future readers of the updated question would better understand how your answer relates to OP's question as they see it… – Njord

Answer 2

I've done this when I was learning Java, something around 10 years ago. It works:

Constantes.java:

package jsc;

public interface Constantes {
    public static final String MULTICAST_IP = "224.0.0.1";

    public static final int     MULTICAST_PORTA = 3333;

    public static final String SEPARADOR = "[>>>]";

    public static final int TAMANHO_MENSAGEM = 1024;

    public static final long ESPERA = 3000;

    public static final String ESTOUONLINE = "EstouOnline";

    public static final String DESCONECTANDO = "Desconectando";

    public static final String PRIVADO = "Privado";

}

ControladorThread.java

package jsc;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.DatagramPacket;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.MulticastSocket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;
import java.util.Vector;

public class ControladorThread extends Thread implements Constantes{
    private MulticastSocket mcSocket;
    private Main main;
    private Vector<Usuario> listaUsuarios;                          // lista de usuários ativos

    public ControladorThread(Main main){
        super("ReceptoraThread_" + main.getNick());
        listaUsuarios = new Vector<Usuario>();
        listaUsuarios.add(new Usuario(main.getNick(), new Date().getTime()));
        this.main = main;

        try{
            mcSocket = new MulticastSocket(MULTICAST_PORTA);
            mcSocket.joinGroup(InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP));
        } catch(IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public void run(){
        while(true){
            try{
                byte[] buffer = receberPacote();
                processar(buffer);
                removerUsuariosOciosos();
                atualizarListaUsuarios();
            } catch(IOException e){
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }   

    public byte [] receberPacote() throws IOException{
        byte[] buffer = new byte[TAMANHO_MENSAGEM];
        DatagramPacket pacote = new DatagramPacket(buffer, buffer.length);
        mcSocket.receive(pacote);
        return buffer;
    }

    public void processar(byte[] buffer){
        String mensagem = new String(buffer);
        mensagem = mensagem.trim();

        StringTokenizer tokens = new StringTokenizer(mensagem, SEPARADOR);
        String t1 = tokens.nextToken();
        String t2 = tokens.nextToken();

        if(t1.equals(ESTOUONLINE))
            atualizarEstadoUsuario(t2);
        else if(t1.equals(DESCONECTANDO))
            desconectarUsuario(t2);
        else if(t1.equals(PRIVADO)){
            String t3 = tokens.nextToken();
            String t4 = tokens.nextToken();
            if(t3.equals(main.getNick())){
                receberMensagemPrivada(t2, t4);
            }
        }
        else
            main.setTextoEntrada(t1 + " diz: " + t2);
    }

    public void receberMensagemPrivada(String deUsuario, String mensagem){
        main.abrirChatPrivado(main.getNick(), deUsuario, mensagem);
    }

    public boolean atualizarEstadoUsuario(String nomeUsuario){
        int pos;
        for(Iterator i = listaUsuarios.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ){
            Usuario uAux = (Usuario) i.next();
            if(uAux.getNome().equals(nomeUsuario)){
                pos = listaUsuarios.indexOf(uAux);
                listaUsuarios.remove(uAux);
                uAux.setTempoInicio(new Date().getTime());
                listaUsuarios.add(pos, uAux);
                return true;
            }
        }
        listaUsuarios.add(new Usuario(nomeUsuario, new Date().getTime()));
        return false;
    }

    public void removerUsuariosOciosos(){
        Usuario usuario = null;
        for(Iterator i = listaUsuarios.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ){
            usuario = (Usuario) i.next();
            if(new Date().getTime() - usuario.getTempoInicio() > ESPERA){
                desconectarUsuario(usuario.getNome());
                i = listaUsuarios.iterator();
            }
        }
    }

    public void desconectarUsuario(String nomeUsuario){
        for(Iterator i = listaUsuarios.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ){
            Usuario uAux = (Usuario) i.next();
            if(uAux.getNome().equals(nomeUsuario)){
                i.remove();
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    public void atualizarListaUsuarios(){
        Vector<String> sVector = new Vector<String>();
        Usuario uAux = null;
        System.out.println("\nOnline: ");
        for(Iterator i = listaUsuarios.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ){
            uAux = (Usuario) i.next();
            System.out.print( uAux.getNome() + " ");
            sVector.add(uAux.getNome());
        }
        main.setUsuariosOnline(sVector);
    }

    private class Usuario{
        private String nome;
        private long tempoInicio;

        public Usuario(){}

        public Usuario(String nome, long tempoInicio){
            this.nome = nome;
            this.tempoInicio = tempoInicio;
        }

        public String getNome() {
            return nome;
        }
        public void setNome(String nome) {
            this.nome = nome;
        }
        public long getTempoInicio() {
            return tempoInicio;
        }
        public void setTempoInicio(long tempoInicio) {
            this.tempoInicio = tempoInicio;
        }
    }

    public void sair(){
        try {
            mcSocket.leaveGroup(InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP));
            mcSocket.close();
        } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

EstouOnlineThread.java

package jsc;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.DatagramPacket;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.MulticastSocket;

public class EstouOnlineThread extends Thread implements Constantes{
    private MulticastSocket mcSocket;
    private String nick;
    private byte[] buffer;

    public EstouOnlineThread(String nick){
        super("EstouOnlineThread_" + nick);
        this.nick = nick;
        try {
            mcSocket = new MulticastSocket();
        } catch(IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } 
    }

    public void run(){
        String saida = ESTOUONLINE + SEPARADOR + nick;
        buffer = saida.getBytes();
        while(true){
            try{
                DatagramPacket estouOnline = new DatagramPacket(buffer, buffer.length, InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP), MULTICAST_PORTA);
                mcSocket.send(estouOnline);

                System.out.println(saida);
                sleep(ESPERA);
            }
            catch(InterruptedException e){
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            catch(IOException e){
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

MensagemPrivadaFrame.java

package jsc;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.TextArea;
import java.awt.TextField;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.DatagramPacket;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.MulticastSocket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;

public class MensagemPrivadaFrame extends Frame implements Constantes{
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;    

    private TextArea entrada;
    private TextField saida;

    private String nomeJanela;
    private String nick;
    private String paraUsuario;
    private MulticastSocket mcSocket;

    private ActionListener saidaListener;
    private WindowAdapter frameListener;

    private boolean estouVivo;      // indica que a janela ainda está ativa

    public MensagemPrivadaFrame(String nick, String paraUsuario){
        super("JSC - Chat com " + paraUsuario);
        setIconImage(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("icone.4"));
        this.nick = nick;
        this.paraUsuario = paraUsuario;
        this.nomeJanela = nick + paraUsuario;

        try {
            mcSocket = new MulticastSocket();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        iniciarComponentes();
        estouVivo = true;
    }

    public void setNomeJanela(String nomeJanela){
        this.nomeJanela = nomeJanela;
    }

    public String getNomeJanela(){
        return nomeJanela;
    }

    public String getNick() {
        return nick;
    }

    public void setNick(String nick) {
        this.nick = nick;
    }

    public boolean estouVivo(){
        return estouVivo;
    }

     public void iniciarComponentes(){
        saidaListener = new ActionListener(){
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                    TextField origem = (TextField) e.getSource();
                    enviarMensagem(origem.getText());
                    entrada.append("\n(" + nick + " diz) " + origem.getText());
                    origem.setText("");
                }
        };

        frameListener = new WindowAdapter(){
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){
                estouVivo = false;
                dispose();

            }
        };

        entrada = new TextArea("[JSC] Bate papo privado entre " + nick + " e " + paraUsuario + "\n");
        entrada.setEditable(false);

        saida = new TextField();
        saida.addActionListener(saidaListener);

        addWindowListener(frameListener);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        int x = (int) (Math.random() * 500);
        int y = (int) (Math.random() * 500);
        setBounds(x, y, 400, 300);
        System.out.println(x + " " + y);
        add("Center", entrada);
        add("South", saida);

        setVisible(true);
        saida.requestFocus();
    }

    public void setTextoEntrada(String texto){
        entrada.append("\n" + texto);
        entrada.setCaretPosition(entrada.getText().length());
    }

    public void enviarMensagem(String mensagem){
        try{
            mensagem = PRIVADO + SEPARADOR + nick + SEPARADOR + paraUsuario + SEPARADOR + mensagem;
            byte[] bMensagem = mensagem.getBytes();
            DatagramPacket pacote = new DatagramPacket(bMensagem, bMensagem.length, InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP), MULTICAST_PORTA);
            mcSocket.send(pacote);
        }
        catch(UnknownHostException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch(IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Main.java

package jsc;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.ScrollPane;
import java.awt.TextArea;
import java.awt.TextField;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.DatagramPacket;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.MulticastSocket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Vector;

import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class Main extends Frame implements Constantes{
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    private TextArea entrada;
    private TextField saida;
    private JList usuariosOnline;
    private ScrollPane usuariosOnlineScroll;

    private WindowAdapter  mainListener;
    private ActionListener saidaListener;
    private MouseAdapter   listListener;

    private MulticastSocket mcSocket;                           // soquete para multicasting
    private Vector<String> listaUsuariosOnline;                 // lista com os nomes de usuários online
    private Vector<MensagemPrivadaFrame> listaJanelasAbertas;   // janelas de conversação privadas abertas
    private String nick;                                        // nome do usuário no chat

    public void setNick(String nick){
        this.nick = nick;
    }

    public String getNick(){
        return nick;
    }

    public Main(String nick){
        super("Java Socket Chat [" + nick + "]");
        setIconImage(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("icone.1"));  

        this.nick = nick;

        listaUsuariosOnline = new Vector<String>();
        listaUsuariosOnline.add(nick);

        listaJanelasAbertas = new Vector<MensagemPrivadaFrame>();

        try{
            mcSocket = new MulticastSocket();
        }
        catch(IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        iniciarComponentes();
        new EstouOnlineThread(nick).start();
        new ControladorThread(this).start();
    }

    public void iniciarComponentes(){
        mainListener = new WindowAdapter(){
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){
                sair();
            }
        };

        saidaListener = new ActionListener(){
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                TextField origem = (TextField) e.getSource();
                enviarMensagem(origem.getText());
                origem.setText("");
            }
        };

        listListener = new MouseAdapter(){
            public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e){
                if( e.getClickCount() >= 2 ){
                    // abrir a janela para mensagens privadas e passar o id do usuário
                    JList jlAux = (JList) e.getSource();
                    String paraUsuario = (String) jlAux.getSelectedValue();
                    abrirChatPrivado(nick, paraUsuario, null);
                }
            }
        };

        usuariosOnline = new JList(listaUsuariosOnline);
        usuariosOnline.setSize(new Dimension(60, 280));

        usuariosOnlineScroll = new ScrollPane();
        usuariosOnlineScroll.add(usuariosOnline);

        entrada = new TextArea("Olá " + nick);
        entrada.setEditable(false);
        entrada.setSize(300,280);

        saida   = new TextField();

        saida.addActionListener(saidaListener);
        usuariosOnline.addMouseListener(listListener);
        usuariosOnline.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(60, 250));
        addWindowListener(mainListener);

        setSize(400, 300);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        add("North", new JLabel("Java Socket ChatO"));
        add("Center", entrada);
        add("South", saida);
        add("East", usuariosOnlineScroll);

        setVisible(true);
        requestFocus();
    }

    public void enviarMensagem(String mensagem){
        try{
            mensagem = nick + SEPARADOR + mensagem;
            byte[] bMensagem = mensagem.getBytes();
            DatagramPacket pacote = new DatagramPacket(bMensagem, bMensagem.length, InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP), MULTICAST_PORTA);
            mcSocket.send(pacote);
        }
        catch(UnknownHostException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch(IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private void desconectando(){
        try{
            String mensagem = "Desconectando" + SEPARADOR + nick;
            byte[] bMensagem = mensagem.getBytes();
            DatagramPacket pacote = new DatagramPacket(bMensagem, bMensagem.length, InetAddress.getByName(MULTICAST_IP), MULTICAST_PORTA);
            mcSocket.send(pacote);
        }
        catch(UnknownHostException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch(IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public void abrirChatPrivado(String nick, String paraUsuario, String mensagem){
        removerJanelasInativas();   
        if(nick.equals(paraUsuario)){
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Você não pode abrir um janela de conversação para você mesmo!", "Burro!", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
            return;
        }
        String nome = nick + paraUsuario;
        MensagemPrivadaFrame janela = null;
        for(Iterator i = listaJanelasAbertas.iterator(); i.hasNext();){
            janela = (MensagemPrivadaFrame) i.next();
            if(nome.equals(janela.getNomeJanela())){
                System.out.println(nick + " - " + janela.getNomeJanela() + " - " + janela.toString());
                janela.setTextoEntrada("(" + paraUsuario + " diz) " + mensagem);
                //janela.requestFocus();
                return;
            }
        }

        janela = new MensagemPrivadaFrame(nick, paraUsuario);

        if(mensagem != null)
            janela.setTextoEntrada("(" + paraUsuario + " diz) " + mensagem);

        listaJanelasAbertas.add(janela);
        //janela.requestFocus();
    }

    public void removerJanelasInativas(){
        MensagemPrivadaFrame janela = null;
        for(Iterator i = listaJanelasAbertas.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ){
            janela = (MensagemPrivadaFrame) i.next();
            if( !janela.estouVivo()){
                i.remove();
            }
        }
    }

    public void setTextoEntrada(String texto){
        entrada.append("\n" + texto);
        entrada.setCaretPosition(entrada.getText().length());
    }

    public void setUsuariosOnline(Vector<String> listaUsuariosOnline){
        usuariosOnline.setListData(listaUsuariosOnline);
    }

    public void sair(){
        desconectando();
        dispose();
        System.exit(0);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]){
        String nick = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Digite seu nome (max. 20 caracteres): ");
        if(nick != null && !nick.equals("")){
            if(nick.length() > 20)
                nick = nick.substring(0, 20);
            new Main(nick);
        }
        else
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "É necessário informar um nome para entrar no bate-papo");
        //System.exit(0);
    }
}

Nowadays I'm not proud of the code, but it really works.

Edit:

As some have suggested, I've made some code improvements (refactoring) and post the project on GitHub: https://github.com/jaumzera/javasocketchat

Whiten

Goodness! Maybe you should make a Github repo just for this answer! XD – Turnkey

I'm planning to take some time to refact this code and post in GitHub. BTW, thank you. – Whiten

@Zimano. First of all, I've been working with IT for something around 12 or 13 years and I've never seen an author suggesting that English should be the unique idiom you'd use for coding. Secondly, I am Brazilian and I speak Portuguese. It's my native language and although it seems hard to learn, write, read and speak, I like it and I'm proud of it. And last, but not less important, this code has more than ten years. I was in university, my teacher was also Brazilian, my colleagues were Brazilians and so there was no reason to write it in English, once it was just a class exercise. – Whiten

@Juamzera I apologize for what I said. I shouldn't have phrased it like that, as I can see it came off as pretty rude. I should have probably just said that it made the code less interpretable/reusable from my side. But that's actually a problem for me to deal with, not yours. :-) – Foible

@Whiten My language, Norwegian, is sadly being replaced by English, bit after bit. I very much like my language as well, and therefore, when I started programming, I wanted to write my source code in Norwegian. In the end, it just turned out to be a big mess, much because of the constant clash with the English programming language. I always see Norwegian being used in source code as an anti-pattern now, but if it actually works with Brazilian, that's very nice. Your answer is still useful, and I understand parts of it. Happy your GitHub version is in English. – Integumentary

Answer 3

Hm, I was tempted to direct you to a java implementation of a server implementing imap protocol (eg. gavamail). But this, of cources, might also qualify as "old" code and for sure would kill your expectation (for being a non-standard solution). Nevertheless it is a proper reference fulfilling your (terse) specification.

What do we have?

We need a solution that should be in java. It must implement an basic instant messaging system.

The later is problematic as it covers a really broad range of functionality. But "basic" seem to allow for a minimum solution.

So what is a minimum instant messaging system? Let's try with the following:

• a client that is posting and retrieving messages.
• a server that is storing posted messages for (later) retrieval

We also would need a policy of how a client would identify a proper server. Most trivial solution for the later aspect is using a "central" server with a well-known address. For more complex cases we would need to have the server and/or client functionality distributed across several instances and devise a scheme or policy for identifying the proper instance(s) for communication.

We leave out more complex semantics like having different users or messages being related to a system of categories or tags.

Now, we are down to having two components:

A server implementing two entry points:

1. POST_MESSAGE
   receive a mesage form a client and store it for later retrieval
   This immediatley is asking the question of where to store such messages (in a database or filesystem for persistency or simply within memory for a "messages live as long as the server is up" semantics)

2. LOOKUP_MESSAGE
   select a suitable message from the stored ones (preferrably an unread one) and return to caller.
   This could also return a set of messages (but think of restricting such set for cases where a caller has a severe backlog of messages)
   It might be necessary to keep track of the messages already having been read, either by marking the messages or by maintaining seen status at the client. This could even be as simple as keeping time or ordinal of last message seen and send this information along with the LOOKUP_MESSAGE request.

A client needs to interact with a user on one hand and the service on the other hand.

It will take gat a new message from the user (likely on explicit request (e.g. send button) and call the POST_MESSAGE service at the related server.

It also will (likely regularly, could also be on explicit request (e.g. user is starting client)) poll the server for new messages. (Alternatively, you could devise a separate notification service that is used by the server to notify the client of new messages. What suits your "needs" is beyond your question.)

That's it.

So any example of a TCP based client/server application will form a perfect starting point for a straight implementation.

I should also mention that you could cut the specification logic within the client and delegate user interaction to a standard browser and implement the client application logic into a (web-)server instance (together or separate from the server part). Nevertheless, you still will have both (client/server) logical functionality according to above minimum specification.

Another aspect you should be aware of:

With some comments you mentioned "host" and "guest" attributions available in current messenger examples. This actually is a logical structure of a tagging system provided with those messengers. The messages are still sent from a client to a server and then being retrieved by other clients. Whether a client can see a message is determined by the client being eligible to the specific tag. E.g posting a message to a contact from yours (user b) just tags the message with the tag "for_user_b" and as such it is only visible to the poster and anybody that is also allowed to read "for_user_b" tag messages (user b in our example). So, please be aware that the logical structure of a messaging system is determined by the access and distribution policy and not by the physical distribution structure!

Honorific

Answer 4

I am not even sure if this question is still being used or what but I liked the task and I thought:

why not?

Here is my implementation, as simple as it gets but without forgetting fundamental parts. Written in pure Java, makes use of, among the rest, Sockets, Threads and SynchronizedList:

SimpleChat.java (Main)

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;


public class SimpleChat {

private static boolean isRunning = true;
private static Sender sender;
private static Receiver receiver;

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

    if(args.length < 3){
        showUsage();
    }

    try {
        receiver = new Receiver(Integer.parseInt(args[1]));
        sender = new Sender(args[0], args[2], Integer.parseInt(args[3]));
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        showUsage();
    }

    // Read user input
    BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    System.out.println("Chat started. Type '\\exit' to quit.");

    while(isRunning) {
        String input = br.readLine();

        if(input.equals("\\exit")){
            receiver.stop();
            sender.stop();
            isRunning = false;
        } else {
            sender.sendMessage(input);
        }
    }   
}

static void showUsage(){
    System.out.println("Usage: java SimpleChat.java listening_port target_IP target_port");
    System.exit(1);
}

}

Receiver.java

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;

public class Receiver {

private boolean isRunning = true;

public Receiver(int listeningPort) throws IOException {

    Runnable receiverT = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {

            ServerSocket serverSocket;
            try {
                serverSocket = new ServerSocket(listeningPort);
                Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
                BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));

                while(isRunning) {
                    try {
                        System.out.println(in.readLine());
                    } catch (IOException e) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            } catch (IOException e1) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e1.printStackTrace();
            }

        }
    };

    new Thread(receiverT).start();
}

public void stop(){
    isRunning = false;
}


}

Sender.java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;

public class Sender {

private boolean isRunning = true;
private volatile List<String> msgs;

public Sender(String username, String targetIP, int targetPort) throws InterruptedException, UnknownHostException, IOException {
    msgs = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<String>());

    Runnable senderT = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            try {
                Socket socket = new Socket(targetIP, targetPort);
                PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);

                while(isRunning) {
                    synchronized(msgs){
                        Iterator<String> it = msgs.iterator();

                        while(it.hasNext()){
                            out.println(username + ": " + it.next());
                        }

                        // Clear messages to send
                        msgs.clear();
                    }
                }

                out.close();
                socket.close();
            } catch (UnknownHostException e1) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e1.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e1) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e1.printStackTrace();
            }

        }
    };

    new Thread(senderT).start();
}

public void stop(){
    isRunning = false;
}

public void sendMessage(String msg){
    synchronized(msgs){
        msgs.add(msg);  
    }
}
}

As the 'showUsage()' says, use this program as follows:

java SimpleChat.java username listening_port target_ip target_port

Example:

java SimpleChat.java Supuhstar 1234 127.0.0.1 1234

[To talk to yourself]

Marquesan

Answer 5

I think you should clarify some details regarding what exactly you mean by a "basic instant messaging program" and what your objectives actually are regarding this project.

In a 2011 comment, you mentioned that there should be no "central hub", but in a more recent comment, you say that you would like something more in line with Skype or iMessage, where users do not have to know which peer is the server... It is technically possible (using protocols such as mdns, dlna or ssdp) for the program to transparently search the local network for potential existing server nodes and have it either connect to the server peer if there is one, or establish itself as a local server for other nodes to connect to it. That is for example how Apple iChat's Bonjour protocol used to work. This is however a rather complex solution to implement right, and is definitely not in line with what is done by current mass market messaging programs.

Also establishing direct peer-to-peer communication between users pose several practical issues (particularly because of firewalls and NAT, but there are also concerns of confidentiality and security). Most protocols therefore relay most messages through the central server, and negotiate a direct connection only for the purpose of file transfers and audio/video calls.

For all these reasons, unless you are looking merely for an example of local network communication between two hosts, you most certainly want two distinct programs: a server and a client.

Then, assuming my assumption is correct, there are two other questions that need to be clarified. First, do you have an actual reason to conceive the protocol by yourself, or would it be acceptable to rather implement an existing protocol (such as XMPP, IRC, SIMPLE... there are tons). Even though these protocols might looks highly complex at first, it is almost always possible to implement only a subset these protocol's features/messages. Designing a naive network protocol by yourself isn't that difficult, but there are tons of potential mistakes (mostly inefficiencies, incompleteness and other minor issues) that you will have to go through. Maybe that is indeed what you are specifically aiming for (that is, gaining experience at designing a network protocol from scratch), but unless it is so, you should seriously opt for implementing an existing protocol. Indeed, working with an existing protocol will not only avoid such design mistakes, but better yet, you will gain significant knowledge from how others (generally experienced protocol designers) actually resolved problems they met along the way. Using an existing protocol will also make it much easier and more interesting for you to develop that program, given that you will for example be able to test your client and server programs independently by connecting from/to an official client/server implementation. You will also be able to exploit exiting protocol-decoders in traffic sniffing tools in order to debug messages going through.

The second important question is how realistic you would like the server program to be, and most importantly in regard to persistance. Should the server maintain a persistant list of users and authenticate them? Should the server store a list of allowed contacts for each user? Should the server allow store messages aimed at a peer that is currently offline or that can't be reached at that exact moment? Real messaging server programs generally do such things, and though implementing such mechanisms isn't highly difficult, it is best considered early in the design of a program's architecture. For example, should you decide that these features are indeed desirable, then it might turn out to be much more interesting for you to immediately design your server around a persistant message queue engine, such as ActiveMQ...

I know this is not the examples you were asking for, but I still hope these thoughts may help you.

Njord

Thanks for all the knowledge! I'm really glad you've straightened stuff out. I'll consider all this, rethink my approach, and edit my question accordingly (and answering your question) soon. – Turnkey

Answer 6

As said before, there is a lot of things that you need to put a real chat to work.
But i belive that you want something to start. And if you know the address and the port of the other "client" it is easy.
Extreme simple "chat" implementation

import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;

import javax.net.ServerSocketFactory;
import javax.net.SocketFactory;

public class SimpleChat {
    protected boolean running = true;
    protected int port;

    private Thread server;


    public static void main(String... arg) {
        //create 2 clients in the localhost to test
        SimpleChat app1 = new SimpleChat(8989);
        SimpleChat app2 = new SimpleChat(8988);

        app1.sendMessage("localhost", 8988, "Message from app1 to app2");
        app2.sendMessage("localhost", 8989, "Message from app2 to app1");

        System.exit(0); // ugly way to kill the threads and exit
    }

    public SimpleChat(int port) {
        this.port = port;
        start();
    }

    public void start() {
        server = new Thread(new Server());
        server.start();
    }

    public boolean sendMessage(String host, int port, String message) {
        try {
            //Connect to a server on given host and port and "send" the message
            InetSocketAddress destination
                    = new InetSocketAddress(host, port);
            Socket s = SocketFactory.getDefault().createSocket();
            s.connect(destination);
            OutputStream out = s.getOutputStream();
            out.write(message.getBytes());
            out.flush();
            out.close();

            s.close();

            return true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return false;
        }
    }

    public void messageRecived(String message) {
        System.out.println("Message recived: " + message);
    }

    public void stop() {
        this.running = false; // only stop after a socked connection
    }

    class Server implements Runnable {
        public void run() {
            try {
                //Create a server socket to recieve the connection
                ServerSocket ss = ServerSocketFactory.getDefault()
                        .createServerSocket(port);
                while (running) {
                    Socket s = ss.accept();
                    InputStream in = s.getInputStream();
                    StringBuilder message = new StringBuilder();
                    int len;
                    byte[] buf = new byte[2048];
                    while ((len = in.read(buf)) > -1) {
                        if (len > 0) {
                            message.append(new String(buf, 0, len));
                        }
                    }
                    messageRecived(message.toString());
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                System.exit(-1);
            }
        }
    }
}

Undersigned