source: skype/README @ e103e73

Last change on this file since e103e73 was e103e73, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2007-10-30T14:24:56Z

update documentation for 0.2.1

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[0c60f96]1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
[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.)
[22d97b4]26* bitlbee-dev >= rev245. Previous versions need patching.
[7e66424]27* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses `DBus` by default. The latest version I've tested is 0.9.28.3.
[22d97b4]28* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
29* pygobject
30
[760ed1f]31`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available
32under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
33
[9e03e55]34== How to set it up
[afe221f]35
[751b149]36Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
37Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
38In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
[4c3a4c8]39package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
[751b149]40
[7e4f0ca1]41NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
[64f8b8ea]42connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
43automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
[7e4f0ca1]44
[11eed8f]45- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
46  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
47  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
48
[afe221f]49- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
50
[0c60f96]51----
[afe221f]52bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
[0c60f96]53----
[afe221f]54
[9c90281]55NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 245.
[b8b0bfd]56
[afe221f]57- Now compile and install it:
58
[0c60f96]59----
[8e3058b]60./configure
[afe221f]61make
62make install install-dev
[0c60f96]63----
[afe221f]64
65- Get the plugin code:
66
[0c60f96]67----
[e103e73]68git clone git://git.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype
[0c60f96]69----
[afe221f]70
[b8351a2]71(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
72features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
73
[e103e73]74- Apply a not yet merged patch: http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-topic-write.patch[download]
75
[afe221f]76- Compile and install it:
77
[0c60f96]78----
[8e3058b]79make prepare
80./configure
[afe221f]81make
[8e3058b]82make install
[0c60f96]83----
[afe221f]84
[c15f71a]85- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
86
87(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
88package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
[4c3a4c8]89previously used `DBus` interface had
[c15f71a]90http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
91problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
92In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
93`pygobject`.)
94
[2fcad6e]95- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
[afe221f]96
[0c60f96]97----
[2fcad6e]98skype
99skyped
[0c60f96]100----
[ba20c39]101
[4c3a4c8]102NOTE: It's important to start `skyped` on the same machine and using the same
[7e66424]103user!
[afe221f]104
[4c3a4c8]105- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
[7338d59]106
107----
108account add skype <user> <pass>
109account set 0/server localhost
110----
111
[4c3a4c8]112IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
[7338d59]113yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
114
115NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
116
[23b84e1]117== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
118
119Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
[4c3a4c8]120a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
[23b84e1]121work, too.
122
123First run
124
125----
126vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
127----
128
129and create a password. You will need it at least once.
130
131Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
132
133----
134#!/bin/sh
135
[19b805c]136sleep 1
137skype &
138sleep 5
139skyped
[23b84e1]140----
141
[57087df]142Adjust the permissions:
143
144----
145chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
146----
147
[23b84e1]148Then start the server:
149
150----
151vncserver
152----
153
[4c3a4c8]154Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
[23b84e1]155allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
156
[dffa24f]157Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
158with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
159your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
160
[9e03e55]161== What works
[b6d26ac]162
[adce2de]163- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
[b6d26ac]164
[39a0d64]165- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
166
[93ece66]167- Sending messages
168
[8dd21bb]169- Receiving messages
170
[72f697b]171- Receiving away status changes
172
[62bb4e4]173- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
[ed2e37f]174
[62bb4e4]175- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
[afe221f]176
[62bb4e4]177- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
[440665b]178
[6627d92]179- Adding / removing contacts
180
[23411c6]181- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
182
[d3cbd17]183- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
[348a3a2]184
[d3cbd17]185- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
[348a3a2]186
[d3cbd17]187- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
[8dd21bb]188
[df9255d]189- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
190
[d6a371e]191- Group chat support:
192
193  * Detect if we're invited
194
195  * Send / receive group chat messages
[93ece66]196
[ff58445]197  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
[c5dd164]198
[d6a371e]199  * Part from group chats
[c5dd164]200
[ff58445]201  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
202
[e103e73]203- Topic changes in group chats:
204
205  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
206
207  * Notice when someone changes the topic
208
209  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
210
[d6a371e]211== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
[c5dd164]212
[846ceffb]213- Add a question callback for calls.
214
[d6a371e]215- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
216
[4285920]217- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
218  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
219  `/join` to a public chat..
[d6a371e]220
[0c60f96]221== I would like to have support for ...
222
[23b84e1]223If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
[80d9004]224contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
225problem may be already fixed there.
[23b84e1]226
227In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
228setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
229then it would be nice to include them here.
[afe221f]230
[f78f949]231== Known bugs
232
[4285920]233- When you join start a group chat, a warning is shown saying creating the
234  group chat is failed. Indeed it is created. I should improve the API to be
235  able to suppress that warning.
[f78f949]236
[0c60f96]237== Screenshots
238
239You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].
[ddd3502]240
[25d87e4]241== Additional resources
[a60c3c2]242
[25d87e4]243You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
244link:http://git.frugalware.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=bitlbee-skype.git;a=summary[here].
[a60c3c2]245
[65e4020]246== Thanks
247
248for the following people:
249
250* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
251
[56a3616]252* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
[65e4020]253
254* Gabor Adam TOTH, for usable bugreports
255
[0c60f96]256// vim: ft=asciidoc
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