source: skype/README @ 0b77a9b

Last change on this file since 0b77a9b was 0b77a9b, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2010-12-11T15:14:21Z

update README

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 12.7 KB
Line 
1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-hu>
3
4== Status
5
6[quote, Wilmer van der Gaast (author of BitlBee)]
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
15One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
16http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
17returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it.
18
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.
23
24NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
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
31== Requirements
32
33* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.1.0.81.
34* BitlBee >= 1.2.6. The lastest version I've tested is @BITLBEE_VERSION@. Use
35  old versions (see the NEWS file about which one) if you have older BitlBee
36  installed.
37* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
38  The latest version I've tested is 1.0.32.0.
39
40* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
41* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
42  install GTK for nothing, right?)
43
44`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. The plugin part has
45been tested under NetBSD and FreeBSD as well. Skype and Skype4py is available
46under Windows, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
47
48== How to set it up
49
50Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
51Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
52In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
53package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
54
55The benefit of this architecture is that you can run Skype and `skyped`
56on a machine different to the one where you run BitlBee (it can be even
57a public server) and/or your IRC client.
58
59NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped`
60connects to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
61
62=== Installing under Frugalware or Debian
63
64- Install the necessary packages:
65
66----
67# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
68----
69
70or
71
72----
73# apt-get install skyped bitlbee-plugin-skype
74----
75
76(the later from the unstable repo)
77
78and you don't have to compile anything manually.
79
80=== Installing under OS X
81
82- Install the necessary packages from ports:
83
84NOTE: You have to edit the Portfile manually to include the install-dev target,
85just append install-dev after install-etc.
86
87----
88# port -v install bitlbee
89# port -v install py25-gobject
90----
91
92and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` and `skype4py` from
93source.
94
95=== Installing from source
96
97NOTE: bitlbee-skype by default builds and installs skyped and the
98plugin. In case you just want to install the plugin for a public server
99or you want to use skyped with a public server (like
100`bitlbee1.asnetinc.net`), you don't need both.
101
102- You need the latest stable BitlBee release (unless you want to use a
103  public server):
104
105----
106$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
107$ tar xf bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
108$ cd bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@
109----
110
111- Now compile and install it:
112
113----
114$ ./configure
115$ make
116# make install install-dev
117----
118
119- To install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py] from source
120  (unless you want to install the plugin for a public server):
121
122----
123$ tar -zxvf Skype4Py-x.x.x.x.tar.gz
124$ cd Skype4Py-x.x.x.x
125# python setup.py install
126----
127
128- Get the plugin code (in an empty dir, or whereever you want, it does
129  not matter):
130
131----
132$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
133$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
134$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
135----
136
137- Compile and install it:
138
139----
140$ ./configure
141$ make
142# make install
143----
144
145This will install the plugin to where BitlBee expects them, which is
146`/usr/local/lib/bitlbee` if you installed BitlBee from source.
147
148=== Configuring
149
150- Set up `~/.skyped/skyped.conf`: Create the `~/.skyped` directory, copy
151  `skyped.conf` and `skyped.cnf` from
152  `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf` to `~/.skyped`, adjust `username`
153  and `password`. The `username` should be your Skype login and the
154  `password` can be whatever you want, but you will have to specify that
155  one when adding the Skype account to BitlBee (see later).
156
157NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
158if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
159
160- Generate the SSL pem files:
161
162----
163# cd ~/.skyped
164# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
165        -keyout skyped.key.pem
166----
167
168NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `~/.skyped`
169dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
170
171TIP: In case you have difficulties generating `skyped.cert.pem` /
172`skyped.key.pem` and you just want to experiment, you can copy&paste the
173contents of those files from
174http://code.google.com/p/gdata-python-client/source/browse/src/gdata/oauth/rsa.py#87[here].
175
176- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
177
178----
179$ skyped
180----
181
182- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
183
184----
185account add skype <user> <pass>
186account skype set server localhost
187----
188
189<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
190in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
191`localhost` with the name of the machine.
192
193If you are running skyped on a custom port:
194
195----
196account skype set port <port>
197----
198
199If you want to set your full name (optional):
200
201----
202account skype set display_name "John Smith"
203----
204
205If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
206offline by default):
207
208----
209account skype set skypeout_offline false
210----
211
212== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
213
214Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
215a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
216work, too.
217
218First run
219
220----
221$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
222----
223
224and create a password. You will need it at least once.
225
226Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
227
228----
229#!/bin/sh
230
231blackbox
232----
233
234Adjust the permissions:
235
236----
237$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
238----
239
240Then start the server:
241
242----
243$ vncserver
244----
245
246Then connect to it, start an `xterm`, set up Skype (username, password,
247enable X11 API and allow the `Skype4Py` client), quit from Skype, and
248start `skyped`. If you want to watch its traffic, enable debug messages
249and foreground mode:
250
251----
252$ skyped -n -d
253----
254
255== Features
256
257- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
258
259- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
260
261- Sending messages
262
263- Receiving messages
264
265- Receiving away status changes
266
267- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
268
269- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
270
271- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
272
273- Adding / removing contacts
274
275- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
276
277- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
278
279- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
280
281- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
282
283- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
284
285- Group chat support:
286
287  * Detect if we're invited
288
289  * Send / receive group chat messages
290
291  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
292
293  * Part from group chats
294
295  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
296
297- Topic changes in group chats:
298
299  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
300
301  * Notice when someone changes the topic
302
303  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
304
305- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
306
307- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
308
309- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
310
311- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
312  communication is encrypted.
313
314- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
315  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):
316
317  * `account skype set call nick`
318  * `account skype set -del skype/call`
319
320- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
321  contacts.
322
323- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
324
325  * `account skype set balance query`
326
327- For debug purposes, it's possible to send any command to `skyped`. To
328  achieve this, you need to:
329
330  * `account skype set skypeconsole true`
331
332  * then writing `skypeconsole: <command>` will work in the control
333    channel.
334
335  * `account skype set skypeconsole_receive true` will make the
336    `skypeconsole` account dump all the recieved raw traffic for you
337
338- If you want to automatically join bookmarked groupchats right after
339  you logged in, do:
340
341  * `account skype set auto_join true`
342
343- Edited messages are shown with the `EDIT:` prefix. If you don't like
344  this, you can set your own prefix using:
345
346  * `account skype set edit_prefix "updated message:"`
347
348- The `echo123` test account is hidden by default. If you want to see it:
349
350  * `account skype set test_join true`
351
352- Mood texts are not shown by default. If you want to see it:
353
354  * `account skype set show_moods true`
355
356== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
357
358- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
359
360- Public chats. See
361  link:https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-381[this feature
362  request], this is because it is still not possible (under Linux) to
363  `join_chat` to a public chat..
364
365- Add yasrd (Yet Another Skype-Related Daemon) to allow using a public
366  server for users who are behind NAT.
367
368== I would like to have support for ...
369
370If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
371contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
372problem may be already fixed there.
373
374In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
375setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
376then it would be nice to include them here.
377
378== Known bugs
379
380- File transfers are view-only from BitlBee. Quoting the
381  https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc/FILETRANSFER_object[relevant
382  documentation]: 'File transfers cannot be initiated nor accepted via
383  API commands.' So it's not something I can add support for, sadly.
384
385== Screenshots
386
387You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
388
389== Additional resources
390
391You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
392http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
393
394The Skype API documentation is
395http://developer.skype.com/resources/public_api_ref.zip[here] if you're
396interested.
397
398
399== Testimonials
400
401----
40200:56 < scathe> I like your skype plugin :)
403----
404
405----
406It's really working great so far.
407
408Good Job and thank you!
409Sebastian
410----
411
412----
413Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
414
415Martin
416----
417
418----
419Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
420skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
421available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
422without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
423lot.
424
425Lukas
426----
427
428----
42902:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
43002:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
431----
432
433----
43418:10 < miCSu> it works fine
435----
436
437----
43813:56 < seo> i just want to thank you :)
43913:56 < seo> for bitlbee-skype
44013:57 < seo> it's working very well, so, again, thank you for your work, and for sharing it
441----
442
443----
44422:16 < ecraven> vmiklos: thanks a lot for the skype plugin for bitlbee!
445----
446
447----
448I'm blind and so I have to use a screen reader, in my case Gnome-Orca.
449But since Skype is written in QT, while Orca uses gtk+, I have no direct
450access to the Skype interface. That's why I desided to use Skyped and
451Erc.
452The text console is fully accessible.
453Thank you very much.
454
455Hermann
456----
457
458----
459i love that bitlbeeplugin. big thx for that.
460
461michael
462----
463
464----
46523:47 < krisfremen> thanks for creating this fabulous piece of software vmiklos :)
466----
467
468== Thanks
469
470to the following people:
471
472* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
473
474* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
475
476* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
477  messages
478
479* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
480  timezone different to mine
481
482* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
483
484* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
485
486Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
487
488// vim: ft=asciidoc
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.