source: skype/README @ 6774d83

Last change on this file since 6774d83 was 6774d83, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-02-26T12:27:29Z

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@vmiklos.hu>
3
4== Status
5
6[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, I use it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching
20is required, you can just install it after installing BitlBee itself.
21
22NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
23a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
24engineer Skype's
25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
26layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
27not..)
28
29== Requirements
30
31* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.43.
32* BitlBee >= 1.1.1dev. This is the latest version I've tested, probably
33  newer versions will work, too.
34* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
35* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
36* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
37  install GTK for nothing, right?)
38
39`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype and Skype4py is
40available under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
41
42== How to set it up
43
44Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
45Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
46In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
47package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
48
49NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped` can
50connect to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
51
52- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
53  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
54  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
55
56- You need the BitlBee testing/development version:
57
58----
59$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
60$ tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
61$ cd bitlbee-1.1.1dev
62----
63
64NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
65
66- Now compile and install it:
67
68----
69$ ./configure
70$ make
71# make install install-dev
72----
73
74- Get the plugin code:
75
76----
77$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
78$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
79$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
80----
81
82It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
83by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
84
85- Compile and install it:
86
87----
88$ ./configure
89$ make
90# make install
91----
92
93- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
94
95(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
96package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
97previously used `DBus` interface had
98http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
99problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
100In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
101`pygobject`.)
102
103- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
104  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
105  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
106  BitlBee (see later).
107
108NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
109if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
110
111- Generate the SSL pem files:
112
113----
114# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
115# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
116        -keyout skyped.key.pem
117----
118
119NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
120dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
121
122- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
123
124----
125$ skyped
126----
127
128- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
129
130----
131account add skype <user> <pass> localhost
132----
133
134<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
135in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
136`localhost` with the name of the machine.
137
138== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
139
140Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
141a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
142work, too.
143
144First run
145
146----
147$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
148----
149
150and create a password. You will need it at least once.
151
152Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
153
154----
155#!/bin/sh
156
157sleep 1
158skyped
159----
160
161Adjust the permissions:
162
163----
164$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
165----
166
167Then start the server:
168
169----
170$ vncserver
171----
172
173Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
174allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
175
176Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
177with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
178your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
179
180== What works
181
182- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
183
184- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
185
186- Sending messages
187
188- Receiving messages
189
190- Receiving away status changes
191
192- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
193
194- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
195
196- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
197
198- Adding / removing contacts
199
200- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
201
202- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
203
204- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
205
206- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
207
208- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
209
210- Group chat support:
211
212  * Detect if we're invited
213
214  * Send / receive group chat messages
215
216  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
217
218  * Part from group chats
219
220  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
221
222- Topic changes in group chats:
223
224  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
225
226  * Notice when someone changes the topic
227
228  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
229
230- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
231
232- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
233
234- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
235
236- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
237  communication is encrypted.
238
239== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
240
241- Fix `set skype/display_name foo`. It seem to be an upstream issue. (`nick
242  skype foo` works fine.)
243
244- Add support for accepting/rejecting and starting calls via settings. (Depends
245  on the previous fix.)
246
247- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
248
249- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
250  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
251  `/join` to a public chat..
252
253- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
254  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
255  server.
256
257== I would like to have support for ...
258
259If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
260contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
261problem may be already fixed there.
262
263In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
264setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
265then it would be nice to include them here.
266
267== Known bugs
268
269- None at this time.
270
271== Screenshots
272
273You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
274
275== Additional resources
276
277You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
278http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
279
280The Skype API documentation is
281https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
282
283
284== Testimonials
285
286----
28700:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
288----
289
290----
291It's really working great so far.
292
293Good Job and thank you!
294Sebastian
295----
296
297== Thanks
298
299for the following people:
300
301* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
302
303* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
304
305* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
306  messages
307
308* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
309  timezone different to mine
310
311* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
312
313Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
314
315// vim: ft=asciidoc
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