source: skype/README @ 292be68

= Skype plugin for BitlBee
Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>

== Status

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. Not a big deal, I wrote
it in two days or so (and not because I'm a genius or anything ;-) ). I think
it's pretty stable, but it needs wider testing. Also see the 'Known bugs'
section, I really hope those random hangups will be fixed soon by Skype.

Oh, before I forget. I'm not a wizard, the Skype API documentation is
https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.

== 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 connecto 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 bzr branch:

----
bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
----

- You need some additional patches:

----
http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-configure-plugins.patch
http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-global-conf-may-be-null.patch
http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-makefile-headers.patch
http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-more-verbose-on-plugin-errors.patch
----

(Yes, I submitted all of them to the
http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/[bugtracker] already.)

- Now compile and install it:

----
./configure
make
make install install-dev
----

- Get the plugin code:

----
git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git
----

(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).

- Compile and install it:

----
make prepare
./configure
make
make install
----

- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):

----
skype
skyped
----

NOTE: It's important to start skyped on the same machine and using the same
user as you run Skype as it uses the session DBus for communication!

- Start your IRC client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:

----
account add skype <user> <pass>
account set 0/server localhost
----

IMPORTANT: <user> should be your skype account name. This way you won't see
yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.

NOTE: the <pass> 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

/usr/bin/sleep 1
/usr/bin/skype &
/usr/bin/sleep 5
/usr/sbin/skyped
----

Adjust the permissions:

----
chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
----

Then start the server:

----
vncserver
----

Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable autologin, and
allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).

== 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

== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)

- Group chat support. Sadly I'm not too motivated to implement this at the
  moment.

- Support for receiving messages which consists of multiple lines.

- Support for receiving edited messages.

== I would like to have support for ...

If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
contact me!

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

- Sometimes when you get a lot of messages in a short time, some of the
  messages are dropped. This is a known bug in Skype itself as of version
  1.4.0.99
  (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[link]).

== Screenshots

You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].

== Changelog

You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here].

// vim: ft=asciidoc