This software is NOT supported by the author anymore.
Please take a look at Java Virtual Medium instead for a much better way of doing things.

The JMHS is designed to use some of the advanced features of java in order to create a friendly interface to users/programmers that need/want to build chat/multimedia/games/etc message based communication structures.

• General overview
  • The main issue here is to enable complex applets running on diferent hosts to comunicate with each other through a server, chat like.
    The new thing about it is the posibility to use the same server to send/receive very different kinds of messages/files/dataarrays, using the same interface, in a compatible way. So by starting a single java server (that means compatibility) you're able to message with others any type of information with a maximum feedback (conditioned by TCP/IP speed only) in a very transparent way.
    (For example, to send a whole data structure from an applet to some other applet, connected to the same server, you just have two steps: creating a Message object using the class ClientMessageCreator with the specified destination (broadcast, single destination, group broadcast etc.), containing the data and then sending it using a method of the class ClientApplet (send(Message m)))
    
• Server perspective
  • The communication server provides a complex way of handling (receiving, transmitting) messages and clients (groups,broadcasts,single destination).
    It's main purpose is to facilitate & ease the whole process of connecting & comunicating of a client (applet or standalone) with other clients. A client can be any program that is compatible MHS, that is it uses Message creators & TCPIP handlers provided in the package.
    The ideea is to let the client do the whole game/chat/multimedia strategy while the server just takes care of message sending/receiving/broadcasting etc.
    The server is designed to be used under all kind of loads, two players talking to each other or 50 players playing some fancy game. It dynamically adjusts it's behaviour according to the load and to the Message trafic.
• Server installation instructions
  • Installing the server is very easy. All you have to do is to get the server compiled (compile the ServerMain.java classfile) and to modify the server resource file and the passwords. Those files are selfexplaining and very easy to modify. Please read the instructions and comments contained inside very carefully before modifying anything. Starting the server is just a matter of executing the command "java ServerMain resourcefile". The server starts and depending on the level of debugging set at compile time it might display allot of debugging info which you might use or just redirect to /dev/null or some file.
• Client view
  • The process of connecting and communicating with others is eased at applet level by the provided ClientApplet abstract class that takes care of everything. The class must be subclassed and has easy to use tcp/ip methods and html tag arguments parsing.
    (It's really very simple to write for example a chat applet : just sublass the ClientApplet class, create your own fancy interface, use the ClientMessageCreator to create string messages and enjoy sending them to everyone.) At normal client level there is a Client class that offers everything needed to communicate. (In fact, the ClientApplet uses a internal Client)
    

Here are some of the main documented classes of the system:

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