source: skype/README @ b7f7100

Last change on this file since b7f7100 was b7f7100, checked in by VMiklos <vmiklos@…>, at 2007-08-22T17:46:48Z

add group chat to TODO

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
3
4== Status
5
6One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
7http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
8returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. Not a big deal, I wrote
9it in two days or so (and not because I'm a genius or anything ;-) ). I think
10it's pretty stable, but it needs wider testing. Also see the 'Known bugs'
11section, I really hope those random hangups will be fixed soon by Skype.
12
13Oh, before I forget. I'm not a wizard, the Skype API documentation is
14https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
15
16== How to set it up
17
18Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
19Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
20In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
21package) and `skyped` will connecto to your Skype client.
22
23NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
24connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
25automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
26
27- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
28  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
29  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
30
31- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
32
33----
34bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
35----
36
37- You need some additional patches:
38
39----
40http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-configure-plugins.patch
41http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-global-conf-may-be-null.patch
42http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-makefile-headers.patch
43http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-more-verbose-on-plugin-errors.patch
44----
45
46(Yes, I submitted all of them to the
47http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/[bugtracker] already.)
48
49- Now compile and install it:
50
51----
52./configure
53make
54make install install-dev
55----
56
57- Get the plugin code:
58
59----
60git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git
61----
62
63(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
64features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
65
66- Compile and install it:
67
68----
69make prepare
70./configure
71make
72make install
73----
74
75- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
76
77----
78skype
79skyped
80----
81
82NOTE: It's important to start skyped on the same machine and using the same
83user as you run Skype as it uses the session DBus for communication!
84
85- Start your IRC client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
86
87----
88account add skype <user> <pass>
89account set 0/server localhost
90----
91
92IMPORTANT: <user> should be your skype account name. This way you won't see
93yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
94
95NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
96
97== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
98
99Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
100a VNC server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other VNC servers will
101work, too.
102
103First run
104
105----
106vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
107----
108
109and create a password. You will need it at least once.
110
111Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
112
113----
114#!/bin/sh
115
116/usr/bin/sleep 1
117/usr/bin/skype &
118/usr/bin/sleep 5
119/usr/sbin/skyped
120----
121
122Adjust the permissions:
123
124----
125chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
126----
127
128Then start the server:
129
130----
131vncserver
132----
133
134Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable autologin, and
135allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
136
137== What works
138
139- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
140
141- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
142
143- Sending messages
144
145- Receiving messages
146
147- Receiving away status changes
148
149- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
150
151- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
152
153- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
154
155- Adding / removing contacts
156
157- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
158
159- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
160
161- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
162
163- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
164
165== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
166
167- Group chat support. Sadly I'm not too motivated to implement this at the
168  moment.
169
170== I would like to have support for ...
171
172If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
173contact me!
174
175In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
176setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
177then it would be nice to include them here.
178
179== Known bugs
180
181- Sometimes when you get a lot of messages in a short time, some of the
182  messages are dropped. This is a known bug in Skype itself as of version
183  1.4.0.99
184  (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[link]).
185
186== Screenshots
187
188You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].
189
190== Changelog
191
192You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here].
193
194// vim: ft=asciidoc
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