ANDROID WEB SERVER ANDROID

Android can act as a Web server because it requires very little processing power to run a site. There are three main types of servers you can run on Android.Ī Web server what you’re visiting right now. Each protocol is a set of connection rules that all computers or applications follow in order to connect to your server. To run as a server, your Android device needs to know the ‘protocols’ to share information.

ANDROID WEB SERVER FREE

There are several types of servers you can run on Android that each have different abilities, and many free and paid apps that will get you there. Even an old iPhone or iPad can be jailbroken and made into a server, but we’ll save that for another guide. Almost any computer can be converted to run as a server, and this includes Android devices. In reality, a server is any computer designed to handle requests for information or files.

ANDROID WEB SERVER HOW TO

You should root it ( here’s how to root) and turn it into a server for any one of the many needs you may have! What is a server?įor those who don’t have much experience in IT or any complex computer technology, you may be thinking a server is exclusively those giant racks of hardware you see in data centers and high-budget techy action movies. You could recycle these old phones, or sell them, but we have a better idea. With newer and more powerful gadgets coming out every six months or so, it doesn’t take long for old phones to pile up around the house, especially if you’re on a family plan. We all love our smartphones and tablets, but they go out of style so fast.

ANDROID WEB SERVER CODE

Since read() method can block, this code shouldn’t execute on UI thread: val inputStream = socket.getInputStream() For example, the following code will accumulate all the incoming data from the client until the end of the stream is reached (which usually means that the client disconnected).

You can use the resulting InputStream to receive data from the client, and use the corresponding OutputStream to send data back. Val outputStream = socket.getOutputStream() Since the communication is bi-directional, you can obtain two different streams from the socket: val inputStream = socket.getInputStream() The returned Socket object represents the communication channel between the server and the connected client. This call will block until the next client connects, so don’t call this method on UI thread: val socket = serverSocket.accept() To make ServerSocket accept connection requests from clients, call its accept() method. Since ports are involved, you can already guess that this server will become an endpoint on a TCP/IP network. To instantiate ServerSocket, you’ll need to specify a specific port that the server will be listening on: val serverSocket = ServerSocket(50000) This class basically realizes server’s functionality and abstracts out most of the underlying complexity from you. Let’s review the main building blocks of an embedded web server in Android.įirst, you’ll need to use ServerSocket class. In this post I’ll explain the basics of web servers in Android applications and provide a reference implementation that you can use to bootstrap your own efforts.

Embedding web servers in Android apps is a niche use case, but, after seeing three different clients using this approach, I’m pretty sure it’s not exceptionally rare either. This will allow your application to accept network connections from external (or internal) clients and establish a bi-directional communication with them. It might sound odd, but you can turn your Android application into a full-blown web server.

Android web server