Is it possible in android to transfer file over http using java socket program?

Question

I'm creating an application to send a file from an android device to another device using http socket program. Here's the code, Server Side

try {
            ServerSocket servsock = new ServerSocket(4042);
            File myFile = new File(pathToFile);
            while (true) {
                Socket sock = servsock.accept();
                byte[] mybytearray = new byte[(int) myFile.length()];
                BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(
                        new FileInputStream(myFile));
                bis.read(mybytearray, 0, mybytearray.length);
                OutputStream os = sock.getOutputStream();
                os.write(mybytearray, 0, mybytearray.length);
                os.flush();
                bis.close();
                sock.close();

            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Toast.makeText(MyActivity.context,
                    "Failed to send file!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                    .show();
        }

And the client side,

try {
                Socket sock = new Socket(ipAddress, 4042);
                byte[] mybytearray = new byte[1024];
                InputStream is = sock.getInputStream();
                FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("/mnt/sdcard/"
                        +fileName);
                BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fos);
                int bytesRead = is.read(mybytearray, 0, mybytearray.length);
                bos.write(mybytearray, 0, bytesRead);
                bos.close();
                sock.close();
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Toast.makeText(MyActivity.context,
                        "Failed to download the file!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .show();
            }

Both these codes are in an AsyncTask class. But client side is always getting timed out. Is this the right way to transfer a file over Internet in android? If so, please tell me where I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

EDIT : Here, the file needs to be send in Server side and Client is trying to download that file.

Answer 1

In the server side code:

byte[] mybytearray = new byte[(int) myFile.length()];

If myFile is the destination, and you have just created it (meaning the file does not yet exist), then myFile.length() would be 0. That means you are creating a buffer of size 0, reading 0 bytes.

Server needs to know how much data to read from the socket. A workaround could be that the android app first writes the length of the file, server reads it and creates a buffer according to that, and after that you write the complete file. Also, I suggest you move your .close() calls to a finally block.

Or, you could just use for example Apache FTP Client on Android and your favorite FTP server on the server side.