Java: getting started with socket and web socket

Question

I have following requirements:

User comes on website and posts a request for a task.

There are multiple machines(clients) running an installed software(not web browser) which can perform the task.

web server has to ask these clients, whether they are willing to complete the task. I want the web server to be running on aws.

Here is what I have understood so far:

client can be a java socket client.

There can be a socket server on aws.

webserver talks to socket server and asks it to talk to socket client and get the response back.

other option might be to use websocket, but I need the client to be a installed software not a browser. Can the need of server socket be eliminated in this case?

Please suggest the best approach. Link to some tutorials will be very helpful or atleast I know what to google.

Thanks

Answer 1

I would suggest using RMI (Remote Method invocation) it is robust and seems fitted for what you are trying to accomplish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_remote_method_invocation

I would also suggest using LipeRMI, which is a good, easy to follow RMI library.

Here is a good link to give you a quick idea on how it works and what your code would look like: http://lipermi.sourceforge.net/documentation.php

It would allow you to call methods on the server and send/receive serialized objects. Only thing is, if you need to do stuff like file transfer, this wouldnt work it only works with java objects.