problem in sending serializable objects using ObjectInputStream

Question

snippet from The Server code :

 public void run() {
        try {
          // Create data input and output streams
          ObjectInputStream inputFromClient = new ObjectInputStream(
            socket.getInputStream());
          ObjectOutputStream outputToClient = new ObjectOutputStream(
            socket.getOutputStream());

          while (true) {

         cop = inputFromClient.readObject();

         String[][] m1=new String[][] {{"1", "1","1"}};
         Object xx=new getSerialModel(m1);
         outputToClient.reset();
         outputToClient.writeObject(xx);

         outputToClient.flush();


          }
        }

snippet from the Client :

//////////////
    /// sockt jop
    try {
    // Create a socket to connect to the server
   socket = new Socket("127.0.0."+Math.round(50+Math.random()*50), 8000);

    // Create an output stream to send data to the server
   toServer = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
   toServer.flush();

  }
  catch (IOException ex) {
    msgArea.append('\n' + ex.toString() + '\n');
  }
///////////////////
//***
///////////////////
buttonSave.addActionListener(new ActionListener()

{ public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev)

{

System.out.println("Saving data is not implemented yet.");
        String[][] m1={{"0","0","0"}};
        for ( int i = 0 ; i < tableModel.getRowCount() ; i++ ){
            { for ( int j = 0 ; j < tableModel.getColumnCount() ; j++ )
                    m1[i][j]=(String)tableModel.getValueAt(i, j) ;
            }
        }

        getSerialModel obt =new getSerialModel(m1);

        try{
            toServer.reset();
        toServer.writeObject(obt);
       toServer.flush();


        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
     msgArea.append("cant reach the server its may be off" + '\n');
   }

}

});
// button send msg
    buttonsendtest.addActionListener(new ActionListener()

{ public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev)

{
        try{


       fromServer = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());

       Object mdata = fromServer.readObject();
       tableModel.setDataVector((((getSerialModel)mdata).getmodel()), columnNames);
       table.updateUI();

        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.print(ex.getStackTrace());
     msgArea.append("cant reach the server its may be off "+ ex.toString() + '\n');
   }

}
});

When I try to read serializable object from the server multible times , I get this exception , for first time the reciever read it successfully .

java.io.StreamCorruptedException: invalid stream header: 00007571

how can I fix it ?

Answer 1

From the documentation for ObjectInputStream.readObject(), I quote:

Read an object from the ObjectInputStream. The class of the object, the signature of the class, and the values of the non-transient and non-static fields of the class and all of its supertypes are read. Default deserializing for a class can be overriden using the writeObject and readObject methods. Objects referenced by this object are read transitively so that a complete equivalent graph of objects is reconstructed by readObject.

The root object is completely restored when all of its fields and the objects it references are completely restored. At this point the object validation callbacks are executed in order based on their registered priorities. The callbacks are registered by objects (in the readObject special methods) as they are individually restored.

Exceptions are thrown for problems with the InputStream and for classes that should not be deserialized. All exceptions are fatal to the InputStream and leave it in an indeterminate state; it is up to the caller to ignore or recover the stream state.

Specified by:
    readObject in interface ObjectInput

Returns:
    the object read from the stream 
Throws:
    ClassNotFoundException - Class of a serialized object cannot be found. 
    InvalidClassException - Something is wrong with a class used by serialization. 
    StreamCorruptedException - Control information in the stream is inconsistent. 
    OptionalDataException - Primitive data was found in the stream instead of objects. 
    IOException - Any of the usual Input/Output related exceptions.

I'd guess that you're trying to read an object before one has been written to the object stream, or one where the output stream hasn't been flushed.

Answer 2

Perhaps you're trying to read multiple times the same object from the stream, while the server wrote the object only once.

Or you're trying to use an ObjectInputStream before a corresponding ObjectOutputStream is created, and that invalidates the communication between the two. An ObjectOutputStream writes a serialization stream header upon its creation, and if it's not created before the corresponding ObjectOutputStream, that header is lost.

Answer 3

You are trying to read in an object of type 'Object'. Is that how it was serialized? You need to make sure that you are reading the object into the same class that it was written from, remember those pesky serialVersionUID warnings that come up? This is key to object serialization and reconstruction, hence the need for matching classes. Also the reason that you need to update your UID when your class structure changes.

Answer 4

If you are creating multiple ObjectInputStream instances in series for the same socket input stream, this seems like a bad idea. If the server is writing multiple objects to the same output stream, then there is serialization-related information that only gets sent once per unique object, and only the first ObjectInputStream instance on the client would be able to reliably read this. Using only one ObjectInputStream instance per socket input stream and one ObjectOutputStream instance per socket output stream is probably the safest implementation.

Also, if you are writing multiple objects to the same ObjectOutputStream instance on the server side (i.e., multiple writeObject() calls), this can result in stream header problems due to potentially multiple references to the same objects (typically nested references) when they are read by the client's input stream

This problem occurs when the object output stream wraps a socket output stream since during normal serialization, the second and later references to an object do not describe the object but rather only use a reference. The client's ObjectInputStream does not reconstruct the objects properly for some reason due to a difference in the header information it is expecting (it doesn't retain it from previous readObject() calls); this only seems to happen with socket streams, not file I/O, etc. This problem does not occur with the first readObject() call but rather the second and subsequent ones.

If you want to continue to use the same socket stream to write multiple objects, you will need something like the following in the server code:

objectOut.reset()
objectOut.writeObject(foo);

The reset() call re-initializes the stream, ignoring the state of any objects previously sent along the stream. This ensures that each object is sent in its entirety without the handle-type references that are typically used to compress ObjectOutputStream data and avoid duplication. It's less efficient, but there should be no data corruption when read by the client.