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Real Time TCP/IP using C#

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12 Jan 20022 min read 579.9K   14.5K   108   42
This sample shows the communication techniques between a client and a server application using a Socket class on each side.

Introduction

The Real time Application is a sample that shows the communication techniques between a client (TcpClient) and a server (TcpServer) application using Socket class on each side. The project also demonstrates how to using listview control in the real time project.

     

  • TcpServer.exe showing the use of TCP socket communication in a separate thread. Multiple instances of TcpClient can talk to the same instance of TcpServer.
  • TcpClient.exe also uses a separate thread to read data from Socket then update the listview control in a form.

The flow of logic

  1. TcpServer listens on port 8002 and spawns a thread to waiting clients to connect.
    Hashtable socketHolder = new Hashtable();      
    Hashtable threadHolder = new Hashtable();      
    
    public Form1()   
    { 
        // Required for Windows Form Designer support           
        //         
        InitializeComponent();    
    
        tcpLsn = new TcpListener(8002);          
        tcpLsn.Start();           
        // tcpLsn.LocalEndpoint may have a bug, it only show 0.0.0.0:8002      
        stpanel.Text = "Listen at: " + tcpLsn.LocalEndpoint.ToString();        
        Thread tcpThd = new Thread(new ThreadStart(WaitingForClient));         
        threadHolder.Add(connectId, tcpThd);     
        tcpThd.Start() ;          
    
        ...
    } 
  2. TcpClient connect to TcpSrv and sends Client information data packet to TcpServer then spawns a thread, which waits to receive data through the Socket.
    private void menuConn_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    { 
        ConnectDlg myDlg = new ConnectDlg();     
        myDlg.ShowDialog(this);   
        if( myDlg.DialogResult==DialogResult.OK) 
        {          
            s = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream,    
                ProtocolType.Tcp );          
    
            IPAddress hostadd = IPAddress.Parse(myDlg.IpAdd); 
            int port=Int32.Parse(myDlg.PortNum);              
            IPEndPoint EPhost = new IPEndPoint(hostadd, port);
    
            Try  
            {    
                s.Connect(EPhost);           
    
                if (s.Connected)             
                {             
                    Byte[] bBuf;           
                    string buf;            
                    buf = String.Format("{0}:{1}", myDlg.UserName,       
                        myDlg.PassWord);       
                    bBuf=ASCII.GetBytes(buf);             
                    s.Send(bBuf, 0 , bBuf.Length,0);      
                    t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(StartRecieve));       
                    t.Start();             
                    sbar.Text="Ready to recieve data";    
                }             
            }    
            catch (Exception e1)
            {    
                MessageBox.Show(e1.ToString());             
            }    
        }          
    } 
    private void StartRecieve()     
    { 
        MethodInvoker miv = new MethodInvoker(this.UpdateListView);           
        while (true)              
        {          
            Byte[] receive = new Byte[38] ;    
            Try  
            {    
                string tmp=null;             
                // Receive will block until data coming     
                // ret is 0 or Exception happen when Socket connection is  
                // broken     
                int ret = s.Receive(receive, receive.Length, 0);           
                if (ret>0)    
                {             
                    tmp = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receive); 
                    if(tmp.Length > 0)     
                    {       
                        isu.symbol= Mid(tmp, 0, 4);     
                        isu.bid = Mid(tmp, 4, 5);       
                        isu.offer = Mid(tmp, 9, 5);     
                        isu.volume = Mid(tmp, 16, tmp.Length-16);      
    
                        this.BeginInvoke(miv);          
                        Thread.Sleep(300);              
                        // block until finish the
                        // UpdateListview’s job JobDone.WaitOne(); 
                    }       
                }             
            }    
            catch (Exception e) 
            {    
                if( !s.Connected )           
                {             
                    break;  
                }             
            }    
        }          
        t.Abort(); 
    } 
  3. TcpServer accepts the connection and saves the socket instance into a Hashtable instance then spawns a thread to handle the socket communication and show the client information in the top listview control.
    public void WaitingForClient()                                                
    {                                                                             
          while(true)                                                             
          {                                                                       
                // Accept will block until someone connects                       
                Socket sckt = tcpLsn.AcceptSocket();                              
                if (connectId < 10000)                                            
                      Interlocked.Increment(ref connectId);                       
                Else                                                              
                      connectId = 1;                                              
                if (socketHolder.Count < MaxConnected )                           
                {                                                                 
                      while (socketHolder.Contains(connectId) )                   
                      {                                                           
                            Interlocked.Increment(ref connectId);                 
                      }                                                           
                      // it is used to keep connected Sockets                     
                      socketHolder.Add(connectId, sckt);                          
                      Thread td = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ReadSocket));        
                      // it is used to keep the active thread                     
                      threadHolder.Add(connectId, td);                            
                      td.Start();                                                 
                }                                                                 
          }                                                                       
    }                                                                             
    // follow function handle the communication from the clients and close the    
    // socket and the thread when the socket connection is down                   
    public void ReadSocket()                                                      
    {                                                                             
          // the connectId is keeping changed with new connection added. it can't 
          // be used to keep the real connectId, the local variable realId will   
          // keep the value when the thread started.                              
          long realId = connectId;                                                
          int ind=-1;                                                             
          Socket s = (Socket)socketHolder[realId];                                
          while (true)                                                            
          {                                                                       
                if(s.Connected)                                                   
                {                                                                 
                      Byte[] receive = new Byte[37] ;                             
                      Try                                                         
                      {                                                           
                            // Receive will block until data coming               
                            // ret is 0 or Exception happen when Socket connection
                            // is broken                                          
                            int ret=s.Receive(receive,receive.Length,0);          
                            if (ret>0)                                            
                            {                                                     
                                  string tmp = null;                              
                                tmp=System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receive);
                                  if(tmp.Length > 0)                              
                                  {                                               
                                        DateTime now1=DateTime.Now;               
                                        String strDate;                           
                                        strDate = now1.ToShortDateString() + " "  
                                                    + now1.ToLongTimeString();    
                                                                                  
                                        ListViewItem newItem = new ListViewItem();
                                        string[] strArry=tmp.Split(':');          
                                        int code = checkUserInfo(strArry[0]);     
                                        if(code==2)                               
                                        {                                         
                                              userHolder.Add(realId, strArry[0]); 
                                              newItem.SubItems.Add(strArry[0]);   
                                              newItem.ImageIndex = 0;             
                                              newItem.SubItems.Add(strDate);      
                                              this.listView2.Items.Add(newItem);  
                                        ind=this.listView2.Items.IndexOf(newItem);
                                        }                                         
                                        else if( code==1)                         
                                                                                  
                                              ……………                               
                                  }                                               
                            }                                                     
                            else                                                  
                            {                                                     
                                  this.listView2.Items[ind].ImageIndex=1;         
                                  keepUser=false;                                 
                                  break;                                          
                            }                                                     
                      }                                                           
                      catch (Exception e)                                         
                      {                                                           
                            if( !s.Connected )                                    
                            {                                                     
                                  this.listView2.Items[ind].ImageIndex=1;         
                                  keepUser=false;                                 
                                  break;                                          
                            }                                                     
                      }                                                           
                }                                                                 
          }                                                                       
          CloseTheThread(realId);                                                 
    }                                                                             
    private void CloseTheThread(long realId)                                      
    {                                                                             
          socketHolder.Remove(realId);                                            
          if(!keepUser) userHolder.Remove(realId);                                
          Thread thd = (Thread)threadHolder[realId];                              
          threadHolder.Remove(realId);                                            
          thd.Abort();                                                            
    } 
  4. Click Load Data Menu to spawns a thread to load the information from a file then sends the information to all the clients that were connected to the TcpServer and update its own listview.

    In both TcpServer and TcpClient, they get the data from a working thread, and then update the Listview control in the Main thread. Here use the MethodInvoker to work it out.

    public void LoadThread()        
    { 
        MethodInvoker mi = new MethodInvoker(this.UpdateListView);             
        string tmp = null;        
        StreamReader sr = File.OpenText("Issue.txt");           
        while((tmp = sr.ReadLine()) !=null )     
        {          
            if (tmp =="")       
                break;        
            SendDataToAllClient(tmp);          
    
            isu.symbol= Mid(tmp, 0, 4);        
            isu.bid = Mid(tmp, 4, 5);          
            isu.offer = Mid(tmp, 9, 5);        
            isu.volume = Mid(tmp, 16, tmp.Length-16);         
    
            this.BeginInvoke(mi);              
            Thread.Sleep(200);  
    
            JobDone.WaitOne();  
        }          
        sr.Close();
        fThd.Abort();             
    } 
    private void SendDataToAllClient(string str)   
    { 
        foreach (Socket s in socketHolder.Values)
        {          
            if(s.Connected)     
            {    
                Byte[] byteDateLine=ASCII.GetBytes(str.ToCharArray());     
                s.Send(byteDateLine, byteDateLine.Length, 0);              
            }    
        }          
    }   

    Following function demonstrate how to dynamically set BackColor and Forecolor properties of the Listview in TcpClient.

    private void UpdateListView()    
    { 
        int ind=-1;
        for (int i=0; i<this.listView1.Items.Count;i++)         
        {          
            if (this.listView1.Items[i].Text == isu.symbol.ToString())       
            {    
                ind=i;        
                break;        
            }    
        }          
        if (ind == -1)            
        {          
            ListViewItem newItem new ListViewItem(isu.symbol.ToString());    
            newItem.SubItems.Add(isu.bid);     
            newItem.SubItems.Add(isu.offer);   
            newItem.SubItems.Add(isu.volume);  
    
            this.listView1.Items.Add(newItem); 
            int i=this.listView1.Items.IndexOf(newItem);      
            setRowColor(i, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 175));    
            setColColorHL(i, 0, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(128,0,0));     
            setColColorHL(i, 1, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(128,0,0));     
            this.listView1.Update();           
            Thread.Sleep(300);  
            setColColor(i, 0, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255, 255,175));  
            setColColor(i, 1, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 175));  
        }          
        else       
        {          
            this.listView1.Items[ind].Text = isu.symbol.ToString();          
            this.listView1.Items[ind].SubItems[1].Text = (isu.bid);          
            this.listView1.Items[ind].SubItems[2].Text = (isu.offer);        
            this.listView1.Items[ind].SubItems[3].Text = (isu.volume);       
            setColColorHL(ind, 0, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(128,0,0));   
            setColColorHL(ind, 1, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(128,0,0));   
            this.listView1.Update();           
            Thread.Sleep(300);  
            setColColor(ind, 0, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255,255,175)); 
            setColColor(ind, 1, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255,255,175)); 
        }          
        JobDone.Set();            
    } 
    
    private void setRowColor(int rowNum, Color colr )             
    { 
        for (int i=0; i<this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems.Count;i++)       
            if (rowNum%2 !=0)   
                this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[i].BackColor = colr;     
    } 
    
    private void setColColor(int rowNum, int colNum, Color colr ) 
    { 
        if (rowNum%2 !=0)         
            this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].BackColor=colr;     
        else       
            this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].BackColor =        
            System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(248, 248,248); 
        if (colNum==0)            
        {          
            this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].ForeColor =        
                System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(128, 0, 64);  
            this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].BackColor =        
                System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(197, 197, 182);
        }                                                                      
        else                                                                   
            this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].ForeColor =        
            System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(20, 20,20);    
    }                                                                            
    
    private void setColColorHL(int rowNum, int colNum, Color colr )              
    {                                                                            
        this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].BackColor = colr;        
        this.listView1.Items[rowNum].SubItems[colNum].ForeColor =              
            System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(255,255,255);  
    } 

Steps to run the sample:

  1. Run TcpServer.exe on machine A.

  2. Run TcpClient.exe once or more either on machine A or machine B.

  3. On the TcpClient side, Click Menu connect; enter the server machine name where TcpServer is running. Enter user name and password in the edit box. Click Ok.

  4. When you see the client in the TcpServer top listview, click Load Data Menu on the TcpServer, and then you will see the real time data in TcpServer and TcpClient.

    Note:  Make sure that the Data file, Issue.txt, is in the same directory as TcpSvr.exe.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear about it. You can reach me at Jibin Pan.

Jibin Pan is VC++, C programmer at Interactive Edge Corp. Xtend Communications Corp. MoneyLine Corp in New York City since 1994 and has Master degree at computer science.

History

13 Jan 2002 - updated source.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRe: I can't find the &quot;MaskedTextBox&quot; Pin
cristiansje22-Jan-04 4:14
cristiansje22-Jan-04 4:14 
GeneralProblems in ReadSocket() method Pin
eyasso19-May-03 3:52
eyasso19-May-03 3:52 
Generalhi&#65292;It is a bug Pin
JiangHaiLong6-Mar-03 19:13
JiangHaiLong6-Mar-03 19:13 
GeneralRe: hi&#65292;It is a bug Pin
Anonymous10-Mar-03 5:56
Anonymous10-Mar-03 5:56 
GeneralHi, I have read your thread, and....a prb Pin
steve_cluj20-Jun-02 19:57
steve_cluj20-Jun-02 19:57 
GeneralRe: Hi, I have read your thread, and....a prb Pin
Alex Korchemniy23-Dec-02 13:56
Alex Korchemniy23-Dec-02 13:56 
GeneralTerrible! Pin
Ian Griffiths14-Jan-02 10:32
Ian Griffiths14-Jan-02 10:32 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
22-Jan-02 3:02
suss22-Jan-02 3:02 
Ian Griffiths wrote:
I hate to be negative, but people use this site to find example code... I don't know where to start with this. It scares me to think that people might look at this and base production code on it. (Or worse, that this might have come from production code.) Here are some things that are wrong:
-- The negative is welcome, but before issue your negative, your
-- negative should be correct, otherwise it is another “terrible”.

In the WaitingForClient() method, the connectId code is just...wierd. It's not even guaranteed to be thread-safe, although the only scenario I can think of that will break it off the top of my head requires 10000 simultaneous threads to be running, so it's probably not that bad. (Although it's completely unclear as to why it is using that strange algorithm.)
-- No. WaitingForClient() is thread safe. It is controlled by the
-- while loop and the tcpLsn.AcceptSocket(). The only one client
-- can be accepted at same time. I use Interlocked.Increment(ref
-- connectId) to increase it, This may don’t need to lock it. The
-- connectId is just a key of the Hashtable. The 10000 is nothing
-- to do with the thread number. connectId defines Max. value of
-- the Hashtable key. I have another variable MaxConnected that
-- control the Max. Connection. Please understand it first!

However, the place where the value of connectId is then used - the ReadSocket method on another thread - is a hostage to fortune - what if the WaitingForClient() method manages to accept a second incoming request before the second one gets as far as reading connectId? (Also, ReadSocket implies connectId is a 'long' - why? Its value is constrained to be 10000 or lower, so having a 64 bit value is just pointless. And copying one long into another like that is not guaranteed to be thread-safe on 32 bit systems.)
-- The connectId is increased by each connection. How long is the
-- server running and how many connections will have during the
-- server is up? The connectId will be a huge number eventually.
-- Even it defined as long, it can’t guarantee it is fine. So I
-- set it to be 10000, or any big number. When the connectId
-- reach 10000, then try to start it from 1 again. You can find a
-- value that is not used by previous close thread.


The server fires up one thread per connection. This is widely recognised to be an unscaleable solution.
-- It depends on how does the server is used and how many client
-- does it have. It has its advantage.

The ReadSocket method updates a ListView directly. This is illegal - you are not supposed to call methods on a Control on any thread other than the one that created it. These calls should be done via the Control.Invoke method or Control.BeginInvoke. (Interestingly LoadThread gets this right when updating the ListView.)
-- You are wrong completely and should learn something from here.
-- This is the best solution to update the control from the
-- background thread! Otherwise you should get the instances of
-- the form and the instance of the control from the background
-- thread. It is not that easy! Please read the example in how to
-- do ... that demonstrates how to create a background thread
-- that uses a MethodInvoker to update a ProgressBar control at
-- regular intervals, which come from Microsoft within the Beta2
-- DVD.

The CloseTheThread mysteriously aborts the thread. This is completely pointless, since the thread was about return out of its starting function anyway, at which point the system would have cleaned it up. Although if the race condition discussed above happens and it gets the wrong value for realId, then it will just abort some other thread... LoadThread also apparently aborts itself instead of just exiting cleanly (although it's hard to be sure - we don't get to see where fThd is set).
-- execute the Abort thread function when you don’t need the
-- thread. It is better than you depend on system to do it for
-- you. If the system does not do it for you, what happen …?


CloseTheThread also modifies the socketHolder collection without any synchronisation. This is not thread-safe - if the WaitingForClient code happens to receive a new incoming connection at the same time as another connection shuts down, this will go wrong, possibly corrupting the contents of socketHolder.
-- You are right at here.

LoadThread uses asynchronous invocation - it calls Control.BeginInvoke, and then mysteriously calls JobDone.WaitOne() to wait for this asynchronous work to complete. Not only do you not need to go via any kind of extra object to do this (it was unnecessary to have a JobDone object - the call object returned from BeginInvoke will let you wait for the call to complete - just pass it back into EndInvoke), but as far as I can tell there was no need to use async invocation at all: the only thing this thread does in between starting the call and waiting for it to finish is to sleep for 200ms! If it's important that this loop waits 200ms each time round, then that's fine (although I'm not sure that it is importnat - this has more of a feeling of a hack to it), but that's not reason not to just call Control.Invoke - if you want to do a synchronous call, then use the facility supplied! It's much simpler than async!
-- you are wrong at here. The BeginInvoke Executes the given
-- delegate on the thread that owns this Control's underlying
-- window handle. The delegate is called asynchronously, but this
-- method returns immediately. it doesn't wait the called
-- function to finished. You have to use JobDone.WaitOne() at
-- here to receive the signal from the end of the called
-- function, then read another data from file.


The SendDataToAllClient method is fine so long as we ignore the title of the article. If this is supposed to be supporting real-time updates, then this is a particularly bad idea - these Send calls could block. So all it takes is one dead client, and everyone else is stuffed. (Although even fixing that, I would hesitate to use the term "Real Time" to describe anything in this program. I would not trust this kind of code to manage my car engine's ignition timing...)
-- I can fix it easily by using try – catch to handle exception,
-- when you got the exception remove all the connected from all
-- the Hashtable.

Confused | :confused:
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
Ian Griffiths22-Jan-02 5:26
Ian Griffiths22-Jan-02 5:26 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
22-Jan-02 9:43
suss22-Jan-02 9:43 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
Ian Griffiths22-Jan-02 23:27
Ian Griffiths22-Jan-02 23:27 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
25-Jan-02 6:45
suss25-Jan-02 6:45 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
Ian Griffiths28-Jan-02 4:59
Ian Griffiths28-Jan-02 4:59 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
titusb#10-Dec-05 8:59
titusb#10-Dec-05 8:59 
GeneralRe: Terrible! Pin
Odis Wooten20-Mar-02 18:15
Odis Wooten20-Mar-02 18:15 
GeneralRe: Building sockets apps (was Terrible!) Pin
Ian Griffiths20-Mar-02 23:31
Ian Griffiths20-Mar-02 23:31 
GeneralRe: Building sockets apps (was Terrible!) Pin
Christian Uhlig7-Apr-04 22:00
Christian Uhlig7-Apr-04 22:00 
GeneralNot a bug Pin
Matthias Mann28-Oct-01 7:18
Matthias Mann28-Oct-01 7:18 
QuestionThread safe? Pin
Nemanja Trifunovic5-Oct-01 8:32
Nemanja Trifunovic5-Oct-01 8:32 
GeneralPart of Source code is missing Pin
5-Oct-01 4:37
suss5-Oct-01 4:37 

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