Socket communication between Android app and web browser

Question

My Android device+app is continuously sending data every few ms, and I'd like to receive it on my web browser application that I'm building with JavaScript/HTML.

In the Android/Java app I do the following over socket:

//Initialize, where PORT = local ip of my laptop with web server I guess.
//and I choose an available port on my network, say 8080. 
echoSocket = new Socket(HOST, PORT);
out = new PrintWriter(echoSocket.getOutputStream(), true);

//Sending data every few ms:
JSONObject j = new JSONObject();
j.put("x", params[0]);
j.put("y", params[1]);
j.put("z", params[2]);
String jString = j.toString();
out.println(jString);

So I have something like {"x": 1.0023532, "y": 2.454234, "z": 6.234583}.

In other Java applications, I've done this communication by having my receiver application create a ServerSocket on the particular PORT used above. Then as long as I have the right local IP address for my laptop, I can do serverSocket = new ServerSocket(PORT); etc.

Now, how can I accept this data in a web application (JavaScript/HTML)? I've heard of websockets but have no idea how to initialize and use for this purpose - hopefully it's pretty straightforward.

Answer 1

I dont think its possible to send data directly to the browser without a middle man (server). If you want to create a fast and easy server to ping data back and forth I would have some fun with NodeJs. I havent gotten a chance to ever use the stuff but I did have some fun playing with it. It could be something to look into expecially if your just pinging data back and forth between clients.

I watched this video "Introduction to Node.js with Ryan Dahl" a while ago and he showed a basic example that does pretty much what your talking about. Just a thought, plus it would be a fun and fast implementation.

On a side note I do believe Amazon AWS has a instance for Node JS if you want to bring it to a live server. Im pretty sure you can setup a micro instance for no cost.