Expected behaviour of server when no network connection?

[Sean Keane]

What would the expected behaviour of the server be when there is no network connection available on the machine and the user attempts to start the server?

I'm guessing that the server should just start up normally. From the servers point of view it doesn't care that clients on different machines cannot connect.

[Roel De Nijs]

If the server can start normally, it will do. Otherwise an exception is thrown, which is handled appropriately (if possible)

[Sean Keane]

Roel De Nijs wrote:If the server can start normally, it will do.

Would you expect the server to start normally on a machine that has no network connection?

[Roel De Nijs]

I didn't care.

[Sean Keane]

Well, I'm just wondering what other peoples expectation would be from an end users point of view. Definitely worth thinking about the end user when it comes to testing

[Roel De Nijs]

When the server is started but has no network connection, a client (end user) will get some kind of "network problem" message and will contact the service desk or the system administrator. And if you have a system administrator who disables (or forgets to enable) the network connection for a network server it's the moment to look for someone else

[Sean Keane]

Roel De Nijs wrote:When the server is started but has no network connection, a client (end user) will get some kind of "network problem" message and will contact the service desk or the system administrator.

This is what happens in your server if you unplug the network connection on your computer before starting the server?

[Roberto Perillo]

Sean Keane wrote:What would the expected behaviour of the server be when there is no network connection available on the machine and the user attempts to start the server?

Well, in this case, the server will start normally, but in thesis, it will only be possible to connect to it from the same machine. For instance, if I start my server without network connections, it will start normally, but, since there are no network connections available, no other computers will be able to connect to it. Now, if the client looks for a server and there is no network connections available, you are gonna get a RemoteException. You can then handle it like this:

// This is a simplified version of the ActionListener that listens to the OK button of the config dialog,
// when you are starting the application in client mode
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
    try {
        Registry registry = LocateRegistry.getRegistry(ip, port);
        Services services = (Services) registry.lookup(RemoteServices.SERVER_NAME);
        new MainWindow(services);
    } catch (RemoteException exception) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "It was not possible to connect to the server.", "App Title", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
    }
}

[Sean Keane]

Roberto Perillo wrote:

Sean Keane wrote:What would the expected behaviour of the server be when there is no network connection available on the machine and the user attempts to start the server?

Well, in this case, the server will start normally,

Mine does too. I guess this is ok. It's just one of the scenarios I considered as part of my testing.