source: skype/README @ 51f0c2b

Last change on this file since 51f0c2b was 59f62dc, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2011-01-03T03:19:51Z

Document that group support is ready

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[0c60f96]1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
[7f1cf70]2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-hu>
[afe221f]3
[56e4ac4]4== Status
5
[9f829c4]6[quote, Wilmer van der Gaast (author of BitlBee)]
[4eaadf6]7____
8Okay, this exists now, with lots of thanks to vmiklos for his *excellent*
9work!!
10
11It's not in the main BitlBee and it'll never be for various reasons, but
12because it's a plugin that shouldn't be a problem.
13____
14
[56e4ac4]15One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
16http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
[1138b25]17returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it.
[56e4ac4]18
[15e2200]19It's pretty stable (one day I wanted to restart it because of an upgrade
20and just noticed it was running for 2+ months without crashing), I use
21it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching is required, you can
22just install it after installing BitlBee itself.
[75742cc]23
[4c3a4c8]24NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
[54c269d]25a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
26engineer Skype's
27http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
28layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
29not..)
30
[22d97b4]31== Requirements
32
[60edadb]33* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.1.0.81.
[451f121]34* BitlBee >= 3.0. The latest version I've tested is @BITLBEE_VERSION@. Use
[31a35ea]35  old versions (see the NEWS file about which one) if you have older BitlBee
36  installed.
[eb39102]37* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
[3129b99]38  The latest version I've tested is 1.0.32.0.
[d276c9a]39
[c60b864]40* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
[22d97b4]41
[edbfade]42* OS: `bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. The plugin part
43  has been tested under Free/Open/NetBSD as well. The daemon part has been
44  tested on Windows, too.
[760ed1f]45
[9e03e55]46== How to set it up
[afe221f]47
[751b149]48Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
49Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
50In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
[4c3a4c8]51package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
[751b149]52
[d0a6a8c]53The benefit of this architecture is that you can run Skype and `skyped`
54on a machine different to the one where you run BitlBee (it can be even
55a public server) and/or your IRC client.
[7e4f0ca1]56
[d0a6a8c]57NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped`
58connects to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
59
[7ce0373]60=== Installing under Frugalware or Debian
[d0a6a8c]61
62- Install the necessary packages:
[11eed8f]63
[36fbaa0]64----
[1d14818]65# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
[36fbaa0]66----
67
[7ce0373]68or
[4966d841]69
70----
[7ce0373]71# apt-get install skyped bitlbee-plugin-skype
[4966d841]72----
73
[12198ac]74(the later from the unstable repo)
[bfdcbfb]75
[7ce0373]76and you don't have to compile anything manually.
[4966d841]77
[720ae58]78=== Installing under OS X
79
80- Install the necessary packages from ports:
81
82NOTE: You have to edit the Portfile manually to include the install-dev target,
83just append install-dev after install-etc.
84
85----
86# port -v install bitlbee
87----
88
[c7000bb]89and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` and `skype4py` from
[720ae58]90source.
91
[d0a6a8c]92=== Installing from source
93
[56d88ba]94NOTE: bitlbee-skype by default builds and installs skyped and the
95plugin. In case you just want to install the plugin for a public server
[cc5f8ac]96or you want to use skyped with a public server (like
97`bitlbee1.asnetinc.net`), you don't need both.
[56d88ba]98
99- You need the latest stable BitlBee release (unless you want to use a
100  public server):
[afe221f]101
[0c60f96]102----
[1f59f2f]103$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
104$ tar xf bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
105$ cd bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@
[0c60f96]106----
[afe221f]107
108- Now compile and install it:
109
[0c60f96]110----
[ccb50f5]111$ ./configure
112$ make
113# make install install-dev
[0c60f96]114----
[afe221f]115
[56d88ba]116- To install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py] from source
117  (unless you want to install the plugin for a public server):
118
119----
120$ tar -zxvf Skype4Py-x.x.x.x.tar.gz
121$ cd Skype4Py-x.x.x.x
122# python setup.py install
123----
124
[21a387fd]125- Get the plugin code (in an empty dir, or whereever you want, it does
126  not matter):
[afe221f]127
[0c60f96]128----
[3b495c0]129$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
130$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
131$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
[0c60f96]132----
[afe221f]133
134- Compile and install it:
135
[0c60f96]136----
[ccb50f5]137$ ./configure
138$ make
139# make install
[0c60f96]140----
[afe221f]141
[21a387fd]142This will install the plugin to where BitlBee expects them, which is
143`/usr/local/lib/bitlbee` if you installed BitlBee from source.
144
[d0a6a8c]145=== Configuring
146
[1b48afb]147- Set up `~/.skyped/skyped.conf`: Create the `~/.skyped` directory, copy
148  `skyped.conf` and `skyped.cnf` from
149  `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf` to `~/.skyped`, adjust `username`
150  and `password`. The `username` should be your Skype login and the
151  `password` can be whatever you want, but you will have to specify that
152  one when adding the Skype account to BitlBee (see later).
[e65ceaa]153
[52d377d]154NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
155if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
156
157- Generate the SSL pem files:
158
159----
[1b48afb]160# cd ~/.skyped
[ccb50f5]161# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
[52d377d]162        -keyout skyped.key.pem
163----
164
[1b48afb]165NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `~/.skyped`
[ccb50f5]166dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
167
[833eaee]168- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
[afe221f]169
[0c60f96]170----
[ccb50f5]171$ skyped
[0c60f96]172----
[ba20c39]173
[4c3a4c8]174- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
[7338d59]175
176----
[789d055]177account add skype <user> <pass>
[4d30309]178account skype set server localhost
[7338d59]179----
180
[e65ceaa]181<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
[10a42d9]182in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
183`localhost` with the name of the machine.
[7338d59]184
[9ace502]185If you are running skyped on a custom port:
186
187----
[4d30309]188account skype set port <port>
[9ace502]189----
190
[7996794]191If you want to set your full name (optional):
192
193----
[4d30309]194account skype set display_name "John Smith"
[7996794]195----
196
197If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
198offline by default):
199
200----
[4d30309]201account skype set skypeout_offline false
[7996794]202----
203
[23b84e1]204== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
205
206Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
[4c3a4c8]207a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
[23b84e1]208work, too.
209
210First run
211
212----
[ccb50f5]213$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
[23b84e1]214----
215
216and create a password. You will need it at least once.
217
218Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
219
220----
221#!/bin/sh
222
[9d6702c]223blackbox
[23b84e1]224----
225
[57087df]226Adjust the permissions:
227
228----
[ccb50f5]229$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
[57087df]230----
231
[23b84e1]232Then start the server:
233
234----
[ccb50f5]235$ vncserver
[23b84e1]236----
237
[ece66da]238Then connect to it, start an `xterm`, set up Skype (username, password,
239enable X11 API and allow the `Skype4Py` client), quit from Skype, and
240start `skyped`. If you want to watch its traffic, enable debug messages
241and foreground mode:
[23b84e1]242
[ece66da]243----
244$ skyped -n -d
245----
[dffa24f]246
[123e45a]247== Features
[b6d26ac]248
[adce2de]249- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
[b6d26ac]250
[39a0d64]251- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
252
[93ece66]253- Sending messages
254
[8dd21bb]255- Receiving messages
256
[72f697b]257- Receiving away status changes
258
[62bb4e4]259- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
[ed2e37f]260
[62bb4e4]261- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
[afe221f]262
[62bb4e4]263- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
[440665b]264
[6627d92]265- Adding / removing contacts
266
[23411c6]267- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
268
[d3cbd17]269- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
[348a3a2]270
[d3cbd17]271- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
[348a3a2]272
[d3cbd17]273- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
[8dd21bb]274
[df9255d]275- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
276
[d6a371e]277- Group chat support:
278
279  * Detect if we're invited
280
281  * Send / receive group chat messages
[93ece66]282
[ff58445]283  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
[c5dd164]284
[d6a371e]285  * Part from group chats
[c5dd164]286
[ff58445]287  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
288
[e103e73]289- Topic changes in group chats:
290
291  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
292
293  * Notice when someone changes the topic
294
295  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
296
[fb36492]297- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
298
[a06a0a5]299- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
300
[6b266f6]301- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
[a06a0a5]302
[ccb50f5]303- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
304  communication is encrypted.
305
[71c4bb6]306- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end):
[2eb4b1f]307
[71c4bb6]308  * `/ctcp nick call`
309  * `/ctcp nick hangup`
310
311- Managing outgoing SkypeOut or conference calls:
312
313  * `account skype set call +18005551234`
314  * `account skype set call nick1 nick2`
315  * `account skype set -del call`
[123e45a]316
[e0074cb]317- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
318  contacts.
[c5dd164]319
[9aed2f1]320- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
321
[4d30309]322  * `account skype set balance query`
[9aed2f1]323
[08a355b]324- For debug purposes, it's possible to send any command to `skyped`. To
325  achieve this, you need to:
326
[4d30309]327  * `account skype set skypeconsole true`
[08a355b]328
329  * then writing `skypeconsole: <command>` will work in the control
330    channel.
331
[4d30309]332  * `account skype set skypeconsole_receive true` will make the
[b820226]333    `skypeconsole` account dump all the recieved raw traffic for you
334
[5acf9ab]335- If you want to automatically join bookmarked groupchats right after
336  you logged in, do:
337
[4d30309]338  * `account skype set auto_join true`
[5acf9ab]339
[f4d37c6]340- Edited messages are shown with the `EDIT:` prefix. If you don't like
341  this, you can set your own prefix using:
342
[4d30309]343  * `account skype set edit_prefix "updated message:"`
[f4d37c6]344
[49a3c02]345- The `echo123` test account is hidden by default. If you want to see it:
346
[4d30309]347  * `account skype set test_join true`
[49a3c02]348
[304aa33]349- Mood texts are not shown by default. If you want to see it:
350
[4d30309]351  * `account skype set show_moods true`
[304aa33]352
[59f62dc]353- Group support:
354
355  * Skype groups are told to BitlBee
356  * The usual `/invite` in a group channel adds the buddy to the group in skype
357    as well (and if necessary, it creates a new group in Skype)
358
[e0074cb]359== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
[846ceffb]360
[d6a371e]361- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
362
[6344674]363- Public chats. See
364  link:https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-381[this feature
365  request], this is because it is still not possible (under Linux) to
366  `join_chat` to a public chat..
[d6a371e]367
[c49820d]368- Add yasrd (Yet Another Skype-Related Daemon) to allow using a public
369  server for users who are behind NAT.
370
[0c60f96]371== I would like to have support for ...
372
[23b84e1]373If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
[e72d869]374contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
[80d9004]375problem may be already fixed there.
[23b84e1]376
377In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
378setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
379then it would be nice to include them here.
[afe221f]380
[f78f949]381== Known bugs
382
[a25bddf]383- File transfers are view-only from BitlBee. Quoting the
384  https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc/FILETRANSFER_object[relevant
385  documentation]: 'File transfers cannot be initiated nor accepted via
386  API commands.' So it's not something I can add support for, sadly.
[f78f949]387
[0c60f96]388== Screenshots
389
[668a122]390You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
[ddd3502]391
[25d87e4]392== Additional resources
[a60c3c2]393
[25d87e4]394You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
[6f01885]395http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
[a60c3c2]396
[c09f90f]397The Skype API documentation is
[8fcb196]398http://developer.skype.com/resources/public_api_ref.zip[here] if you're
399interested.
[c09f90f]400
[ceee9c7]401
402== Testimonials
403
404----
[3e8a4ea]40500:56 < scathe> I like your skype plugin :)
[ceee9c7]406----
407
[6774d83]408----
409It's really working great so far.
410
411Good Job and thank you!
412Sebastian
413----
414
[587a921]415----
416Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
417
418Martin
419----
420
[93264f0]421----
422Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
423skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
424available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
425without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
426lot.
427
428Lukas
429----
430
[e3d0b10]431----
43202:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
43302:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
434----
435
[df482d4]436----
43718:10 < miCSu> it works fine
438----
439
[3e8a4ea]440----
44113:56 < seo> i just want to thank you :)
44213:56 < seo> for bitlbee-skype
44313:57 < seo> it's working very well, so, again, thank you for your work, and for sharing it
444----
445
[8cb17ff]446----
44722:16 < ecraven> vmiklos: thanks a lot for the skype plugin for bitlbee!
448----
449
[8ee6def]450----
451I'm blind and so I have to use a screen reader, in my case Gnome-Orca.
452But since Skype is written in QT, while Orca uses gtk+, I have no direct
453access to the Skype interface. That's why I desided to use Skyped and
454Erc.
455The text console is fully accessible.
456Thank you very much.
457
458Hermann
459----
460
[b9f2894]461----
462i love that bitlbeeplugin. big thx for that.
463
464michael
465----
466
[d0169e7]467----
46823:47 < krisfremen> thanks for creating this fabulous piece of software vmiklos :)
469----
470
[65e4020]471== Thanks
472
[37ae52a]473to the following people:
[65e4020]474
[e49da25]475* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
[65e4020]476
[56a3616]477* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
[65e4020]478
[9834597]479* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
480  messages
481
482* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
483  timezone different to mine
[65e4020]484
[4834307]485* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
486
[437ddf5]487* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
488
[eb9cbb8]489Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
490
[0c60f96]491// vim: ft=asciidoc
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