Handling multiple clients
Handling multiple clients can be achieved using threads. In this section, we will develop a simple parts server and client applications. The server will use a separate thread to handle each client. This technique is simple to implement, but it will not always be suitable for more demanding applications. We will introduce alternate techniques to multitask in Chapter 7, Network Scalability.
The parts server is implemented in the PartsServer class, and the client is implemented in the PartsClient class. A new instance of a ClientHandler class will be created for each client. This handler will accept requests for the price of a part. The client will send the name of the part to the handler. The handler will look up the price of the part using the getPrice method of PartsServer. It will then return the price to the client.
The parts server
The parts server uses a HashMap variable to hold information about parts. The name of the part is used as a key, and the value is stored...
