source: skype/README @ 668a122

Last change on this file since 668a122 was 668a122, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2007-11-20T16:22:38Z

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[0c60f96]1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
[668a122]2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@vmiklos.hu>
[afe221f]3
[56e4ac4]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
[56b56478]8returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. Not a big deal, I wrote
[56e4ac4]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
[75742cc]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
[4c3a4c8]16NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
[54c269d]17a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
18engineer Skype's
19http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
20layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
21not..)
22
[22d97b4]23== Requirements
24
[6adca511]25* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. (1.4.0.74 did not work for me, 1.4.0.118 seems to be OK.)
[cbb5fb7]26* bitlbee-dev >= rev264. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably
[9fcaedc0]27  newer versions probably will work, too.)
[7e66424]28* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses `DBus` by default. The latest version I've tested is 0.9.28.3.
[22d97b4]29* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
30* pygobject
31
[760ed1f]32`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available
33under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
34
[9e03e55]35== How to set it up
[afe221f]36
[751b149]37Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
38Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
39In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
[4c3a4c8]40package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
[751b149]41
[7e4f0ca1]42NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
[64f8b8ea]43connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
44automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
[7e4f0ca1]45
[11eed8f]46- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
47  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
48  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
49
[afe221f]50- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
51
[0c60f96]52----
[afe221f]53bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
[0c60f96]54----
[afe221f]55
[cbb5fb7]56NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 264.
[b8b0bfd]57
[afe221f]58- Now compile and install it:
59
[0c60f96]60----
[8e3058b]61./configure
[afe221f]62make
63make install install-dev
[0c60f96]64----
[afe221f]65
66- Get the plugin code:
67
[0c60f96]68----
[668a122]69git clone git://vmiklos.hu/~vmiklos/pyrssi
[0c60f96]70----
[afe221f]71
[b8351a2]72(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
73features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
74
[afe221f]75- Compile and install it:
76
[0c60f96]77----
[8e3058b]78make prepare
79./configure
[afe221f]80make
[8e3058b]81make install
[0c60f96]82----
[afe221f]83
[c15f71a]84- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
85
86(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
87package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
[4c3a4c8]88previously used `DBus` interface had
[c15f71a]89http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
90problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
91In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
92`pygobject`.)
93
[2fcad6e]94- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
[afe221f]95
[0c60f96]96----
[2fcad6e]97skype
98skyped
[0c60f96]99----
[ba20c39]100
[4c3a4c8]101NOTE: It's important to start `skyped` on the same machine and using the same
[7e66424]102user!
[afe221f]103
[4c3a4c8]104- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
[7338d59]105
106----
107account add skype <user> <pass>
108account set 0/server localhost
109----
110
[4c3a4c8]111IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
[7338d59]112yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
113
114NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
115
[23b84e1]116== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
117
118Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
[4c3a4c8]119a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
[23b84e1]120work, too.
121
122First run
123
124----
125vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
126----
127
128and create a password. You will need it at least once.
129
130Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
131
132----
133#!/bin/sh
134
[19b805c]135sleep 1
136skype &
137sleep 5
138skyped
[23b84e1]139----
140
[57087df]141Adjust the permissions:
142
143----
144chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
145----
146
[23b84e1]147Then start the server:
148
149----
150vncserver
151----
152
[4c3a4c8]153Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
[23b84e1]154allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
155
[dffa24f]156Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
157with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
158your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
159
[9e03e55]160== What works
[b6d26ac]161
[adce2de]162- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
[b6d26ac]163
[39a0d64]164- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
165
[93ece66]166- Sending messages
167
[8dd21bb]168- Receiving messages
169
[72f697b]170- Receiving away status changes
171
[62bb4e4]172- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
[ed2e37f]173
[62bb4e4]174- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
[afe221f]175
[62bb4e4]176- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
[440665b]177
[6627d92]178- Adding / removing contacts
179
[23411c6]180- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
181
[d3cbd17]182- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
[348a3a2]183
[d3cbd17]184- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
[348a3a2]185
[d3cbd17]186- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
[8dd21bb]187
[df9255d]188- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
189
[d6a371e]190- Group chat support:
191
192  * Detect if we're invited
193
194  * Send / receive group chat messages
[93ece66]195
[ff58445]196  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
[c5dd164]197
[d6a371e]198  * Part from group chats
[c5dd164]199
[ff58445]200  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
201
[e103e73]202- Topic changes in group chats:
203
204  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
205
206  * Notice when someone changes the topic
207
208  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
209
[d6a371e]210== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
[c5dd164]211
[846ceffb]212- Add a question callback for calls.
213
[d6a371e]214- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
215
[4285920]216- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
217  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
218  `/join` to a public chat..
[d6a371e]219
[0c60f96]220== I would like to have support for ...
221
[23b84e1]222If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
[80d9004]223contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
224problem may be already fixed there.
[23b84e1]225
226In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
227setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
228then it would be nice to include them here.
[afe221f]229
[f78f949]230== Known bugs
231
[4285920]232- When you join start a group chat, a warning is shown saying creating the
233  group chat is failed. Indeed it is created. I should improve the API to be
234  able to suppress that warning.
[f78f949]235
[0c60f96]236== Screenshots
237
[668a122]238You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
[ddd3502]239
[25d87e4]240== Additional resources
[a60c3c2]241
[25d87e4]242You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
243link:http://git.frugalware.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=bitlbee-skype.git;a=summary[here].
[a60c3c2]244
[65e4020]245== Thanks
246
247for the following people:
248
249* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
250
[56a3616]251* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
[65e4020]252
253* Gabor Adam TOTH, for usable bugreports
254
[0c60f96]255// vim: ft=asciidoc
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