source: skype/README @ b06e647

Last change on this file since b06e647 was cbb5fb7, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2007-11-20T09:54:22Z

doc update: no patching needed again, but a recent snapshot

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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, 1.4.0.118 seems to be OK.)
26* bitlbee-dev >= rev264. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably
27  newer versions probably will work, too.)
28* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses `DBus` by default. The latest version I've tested is 0.9.28.3.
29* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
30* pygobject
31
32`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available
33under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
34
35== How to set it up
36
37Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
38Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
39In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
40package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
41
42NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
43connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
44automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
45
46- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
47  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
48  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
49
50- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
51
52----
53bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
54----
55
56NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 264.
57
58- Now compile and install it:
59
60----
61./configure
62make
63make install install-dev
64----
65
66- Get the plugin code:
67
68----
69git clone git://git.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype
70----
71
72(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
73features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
74
75- Compile and install it:
76
77----
78make prepare
79./configure
80make
81make install
82----
83
84- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
85
86(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
87package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
88previously used `DBus` interface had
89http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
90problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
91In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
92`pygobject`.)
93
94- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
95
96----
97skype
98skyped
99----
100
101NOTE: It's important to start `skyped` on the same machine and using the same
102user!
103
104- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
105
106----
107account add skype <user> <pass>
108account set 0/server localhost
109----
110
111IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
112yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
113
114NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
115
116== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
117
118Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
119a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
120work, too.
121
122First run
123
124----
125vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
126----
127
128and create a password. You will need it at least once.
129
130Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
131
132----
133#!/bin/sh
134
135sleep 1
136skype &
137sleep 5
138skyped
139----
140
141Adjust the permissions:
142
143----
144chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
145----
146
147Then start the server:
148
149----
150vncserver
151----
152
153Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
154allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
155
156Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
157with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
158your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
159
160== What works
161
162- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
163
164- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
165
166- Sending messages
167
168- Receiving messages
169
170- Receiving away status changes
171
172- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
173
174- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
175
176- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
177
178- Adding / removing contacts
179
180- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
181
182- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
183
184- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
185
186- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
187
188- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
189
190- Group chat support:
191
192  * Detect if we're invited
193
194  * Send / receive group chat messages
195
196  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
197
198  * Part from group chats
199
200  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
201
202- Topic changes in group chats:
203
204  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
205
206  * Notice when someone changes the topic
207
208  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
209
210== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
211
212- Add a question callback for calls.
213
214- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
215
216- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
217  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
218  `/join` to a public chat..
219
220== I would like to have support for ...
221
222If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
223contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
224problem may be already fixed there.
225
226In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
227setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
228then it would be nice to include them here.
229
230== Known bugs
231
232- When you join start a group chat, a warning is shown saying creating the
233  group chat is failed. Indeed it is created. I should improve the API to be
234  able to suppress that warning.
235
236== Screenshots
237
238You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].
239
240== Additional resources
241
242You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
243link:http://git.frugalware.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=bitlbee-skype.git;a=summary[here].
244
245== Thanks
246
247for the following people:
248
249* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
250
251* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
252
253* Gabor Adam TOTH, for usable bugreports
254
255// vim: ft=asciidoc
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