CEN 4500  Data Communications
Project: Java Socket Programming

Tentative Project Description (will be updated)

        In this project, you will implement TCP-based client-server communication with Java (preferred) or C/C++, in a group of  2~3 students. You will implement a remote birthdate query system. A text file containing the user names and their dates of birth is stored at the server side. The client-side the program connects to the server-side program through a TCP connection. The client-side program then sends a request to the server-side program, asking for the date of birth for a user name. The server-side the program looks up the text file and sends the answer back to the client through the TCP connection. The client prints out the result on the screen and then exits. After the client exits, another client process (probably on another machine) may establish a TCP connection to the same server process and send queries.

        There is no need for Graphic User Interface (GUI). The syntax of your program should be like this:   
                on the server machine: (java) query_server server_port filename
                on the client machine:  (java) query_client server_domain_name  server_port username...      // more than one usernames might be specified. 

        For the format of the text file stored at the server side, each line maintains an entry of one user: "username(with no space), mm/dd/yyyy"       

        You will design your own application-level protocol sitting above TCP. Your protocol should consider the case that the username may not exist in the text file.      

        You will submit your source codes as well as a project report. A README file should also be included to describe how to compile and run the program. The project report should give the overall application-level protocol design, the programming design (major interfaces, classes, data members, methods, and call sequences), and representative output.  

Submission

• Due April 18, 2006.
• A script might be used to evaluate your program. Please follow the syntax exactly (i.e. case-sensitive). Also, your program will be tested on school Linux/Unix machines.
• Submit the source codes (with comments), the README file and the project report as email attachments to czhang AT cs dot fiu dot edu (with email title: CEN4500 Project). In your email, give the full names of all the team members.
• The electronic source codes should be packed (using tar cfv and gzip ) in a file named query.tar.gz. When it is unpacked (using gunzip), it should generate a directory query that contains all the files, including an executable compile script compile.sh. When that compile script is executed, the executable query_server(.class) and query_client(.class) will be created under the directory query.
• Bring a hard copy (the source codes, the README file and the report) to the class. Your project will NOT be graded until both the hard copy and the soft copy are received.