= Skype plugin for BitlBee Miklos Vajna == Status [Wilmer van der Gaast (author of BitlBee)] ____ Okay, this exists now, with lots of thanks to vmiklos for his *excellent* work!! It's not in the main BitlBee and it'll never be for various reasons, but because it's a plugin that shouldn't be a problem. ____ One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. It's pretty stable, I use it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching is required, you can just install it after installing BitlBee itself. NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse engineer Skype's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or not..) == Requirements * Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.27. * bitlbee >= 1.1.1dev. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably newer versions probably will work, too.) * Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes. * Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4. * pygobject `bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested. == How to set it up Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so. In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client. NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped` automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.) - If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee` and `bitlbee-skype` packages from http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo]. - You need the BitlBee testing/development version: ---- wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz cd bitlbee-1.1.1dev ---- NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev. - Now compile and install it: ---- ./configure make make install install-dev ---- - Get the plugin code: ---- git clone git://vmiklos.hu/bitlbee-skype ---- (Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what features/bugfixes will you miss in this case). NOTE: It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local` by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default). - Compile and install it: ---- cd bitlbee-skype make prepare ./configure make make install ---- - Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py]. (You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the previously used `DBus` interface had http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project. In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just `pygobject`.) - Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server): ---- skype skyped ---- NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be able to connect to Skype! - Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account: ---- account add skype account set 0/server localhost ---- IMPORTANT: should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see yourself joining to `&bitlbee`. NOTE: the option is not used currently. == Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional) Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will work, too. First run ---- vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd ---- and create a password. You will need it at least once. Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents: ---- #!/bin/sh sleep 1 skype & sleep 5 skyped ---- Adjust the permissions: ---- chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup ---- Then start the server: ---- vncserver ---- Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it). Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.) == What works - Download nicks and away statuses from Skype - Noticing joins / parts while we're connected - Sending messages - Receiving messages - Receiving away status changes - `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp) - Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits - Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages - Adding / removing contacts - Set away state when you do a `/away`. - When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline` - When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online` - Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation - Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file - Group chat support: * Detect if we're invited * Send / receive group chat messages * Invite others (using `/invite `) * Part from group chats * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`) - Topic changes in group chats: * Show the current topic (if any) on join * Notice when someone changes the topic * Support changing the topic using `/topic` - Viewing the profile using the `info` command. == What needs to be done (aka. TODO) - Add a question callback for calls. - Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined. - Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to `/join` to a public chat.. - Handle skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type) == I would like to have support for ... If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your problem may be already fixed there. In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks, then it would be nice to include them here. == Known bugs - None at this time. == Screenshots You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here]. == Additional resources You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here]. The Skype API documentation is https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested. == Thanks for the following people: * Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface * Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped * Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline messages * Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a timezone different to mine * people on `#bitlbee` for feedback Back to my link:/projects[projects page]. // vim: ft=asciidoc