ChatClient
This is a simple program that was created as part of a group project for my degree to demonstrate the core of the project which was a set of classes designed for the easy creation of network applications. This framework, created by Edsko de Vries, was called Rapid Network Application development, or more simply RNAP.
The RNAP architecture consists of a database storing information about the servers currently available, the server itself and then the clients. Server names and passwords are first registered in the database, then when the server is started it sends its ip address and port to the database so clients can find it. Clients connect to the database to find out where the server is, they can then send messages to the server to be sent to another client or to all clients. A RNAP client needs to inherit from the RNAP_App class to be an application or RNAP_Client to be an applet and implement four abstract methods. Also included with the RNAP package is an admin program to deal with user administration at the server end.
ChatClient is a simple chatroom application, where a user can pass messages to the room in general or to a particular user. Not really the most complex piece of coding, however when I was coding it, it had been quite some time since I’d used Java and it was very pleasant getting to know the language once more and learning the Swing toolkit.