source: skype/README @ 93264f0

Last change on this file since 93264f0 was 93264f0, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-04-10T16:57:16Z

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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 2.0.0.63.
32* BitlBee >= 1.1.1dev. The latest version I've tested is 1.2.
33* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
34* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
35* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
36  install GTK for nothing, right?)
37
38`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. Skype and Skype4py is
39available under Windows, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
40
41== How to set it up
42
43Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
44Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
45In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
46package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
47
48NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped` can
49connect to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
50
51- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user:
52
53----
54# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
55----
56
57- You need the latest stable BitlBee release:
58
59----
60$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
61$ tar xf bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
62$ cd bitlbee-1.2
63----
64
65NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
66
67- Now compile and install it:
68
69----
70$ ./configure
71$ make
72# make install install-dev
73----
74
75- Get the plugin code:
76
77----
78$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
79$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
80$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
81----
82
83It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
84by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
85
86- Compile and install it:
87
88----
89$ ./configure
90$ make
91# make install
92----
93
94- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
95
96- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
97  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
98  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
99  BitlBee (see later).
100
101NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
102if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
103
104- Generate the SSL pem files:
105
106----
107# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
108# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
109        -keyout skyped.key.pem
110----
111
112NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
113dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
114
115- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
116
117----
118$ skyped
119----
120
121- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
122
123----
124account add skype <user> <pass>
125account set skype/server localhost
126----
127
128<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
129in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
130`localhost` with the name of the machine.
131
132If you are running skyped on a custom port:
133
134----
135account set skype/port <port>
136----
137
138If you want to set your full name (optional):
139
140----
141account set skype/display_name "John Smith"
142----
143
144If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
145offline by default):
146
147----
148account set skype/skypeout_offline false
149----
150
151== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
152
153Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
154a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
155work, too.
156
157First run
158
159----
160$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
161----
162
163and create a password. You will need it at least once.
164
165Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
166
167----
168#!/bin/sh
169
170twm
171----
172
173Adjust the permissions:
174
175----
176$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
177----
178
179Then start the server:
180
181----
182$ vncserver
183----
184
185Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable
186auto-login, start skyped and allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when
187Skype asks about it).
188
189Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
190with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
191your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
192
193== Features
194
195- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
196
197- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
198
199- Sending messages
200
201- Receiving messages
202
203- Receiving away status changes
204
205- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
206
207- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
208
209- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
210
211- Adding / removing contacts
212
213- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
214
215- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
216
217- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
218
219- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
220
221- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
222
223- Group chat support:
224
225  * Detect if we're invited
226
227  * Send / receive group chat messages
228
229  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
230
231  * Part from group chats
232
233  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
234
235- Topic changes in group chats:
236
237  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
238
239  * Notice when someone changes the topic
240
241  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
242
243- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
244
245- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
246
247- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
248
249- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
250  communication is encrypted.
251
252- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
253  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):
254
255  * `account set skype/call nick`
256  * `account set -del skype/call`
257
258- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
259  contacts.
260
261- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
262
263  * `account set skype/balance query`
264
265== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
266
267- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
268
269- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
270  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
271  `/join` to a public chat..
272
273- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
274  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
275  server.
276
277== I would like to have support for ...
278
279If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
280contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
281problem may be already fixed there.
282
283In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
284setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
285then it would be nice to include them here.
286
287== Known bugs
288
289- None at this time.
290
291== Screenshots
292
293You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
294
295== Additional resources
296
297You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
298http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
299
300The Skype API documentation is
301https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
302
303
304== Testimonials
305
306----
30700:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
308----
309
310----
311It's really working great so far.
312
313Good Job and thank you!
314Sebastian
315----
316
317----
318Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
319
320Martin
321----
322
323----
324Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
325skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
326available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
327without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
328lot.
329
330Lukas
331----
332
333== Thanks
334
335for the following people:
336
337* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
338
339* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
340
341* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
342  messages
343
344* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
345  timezone different to mine
346
347* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
348
349* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
350
351Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
352
353// vim: ft=asciidoc
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