source: skype/README @ 2d07803

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
3
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
8returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. Not a big deal, I wrote
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
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
16NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
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
23== Requirements
24
25* Skype 1.4.0.99. 1.4.0.74 did *not* work for me.
26* bitlbee-dev >= rev245. Previous versions need patching.
27* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses `DBus` by default. The latest version I've tested is 0.9.28.3.
28* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
29* pygobject
30
31== How to set it up
32
33Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
34Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
35In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
36package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
37
38NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
39connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
40automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
41
42- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
43  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
44  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
45
46- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
47
48----
49bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
50----
51
52NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 245.
53
54- Now compile and install it:
55
56----
57./configure
58make
59make install install-dev
60----
61
62- Get the plugin code:
63
64----
65git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git
66----
67
68(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
69features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
70
71- Compile and install it:
72
73----
74make prepare
75./configure
76make
77make install
78----
79
80- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
81
82(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
83package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
84previously used `DBus` interface had
85http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
86problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
87In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
88`pygobject`.)
89
90- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
91
92----
93skype
94skyped
95----
96
97NOTE: It's important to start `skyped` on the same machine and using the same
98user!
99
100- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
101
102----
103account add skype <user> <pass>
104account set 0/server localhost
105----
106
107IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
108yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
109
110NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
111
112== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
113
114Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
115a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
116work, too.
117
118First run
119
120----
121vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
122----
123
124and create a password. You will need it at least once.
125
126Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
127
128----
129#!/bin/sh
130
131sleep 1
132skype &
133sleep 5
134skyped
135----
136
137Adjust the permissions:
138
139----
140chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
141----
142
143Then start the server:
144
145----
146vncserver
147----
148
149Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
150allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
151
152Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
153with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
154your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
155
156== What works
157
158- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
159
160- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
161
162- Sending messages
163
164- Receiving messages
165
166- Receiving away status changes
167
168- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
169
170- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
171
172- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
173
174- Adding / removing contacts
175
176- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
177
178- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
179
180- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
181
182- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
183
184- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
185
186- Handle topic changes
187
188== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
189
190- Group chat support. For an initial support the followings would be needed:
191
192  * Detect if we're invited.
193
194  * Send / receive group chat messages.
195
196- Add a question callback for calls.
197
198== I would like to have support for ...
199
200If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
201contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
202problem may be already fixed there.
203
204In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
205setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
206then it would be nice to include them here.
207
208== Known bugs
209
210- None at this time.
211
212== Screenshots
213
214You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].
215
216== Additional resources
217
218You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
219link:http://git.frugalware.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=bitlbee-skype.git;a=summary[here].
220
221== Thanks
222
223for the following people:
224
225* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
226
227* awahlig (from the skype forums), for making suggestions to skyped
228
229* Gabor Adam TOTH, for usable bugreports
230
231// vim: ft=asciidoc
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