source: skype/README @ c7304b2

Last change on this file since c7304b2 was e65ceaa, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-01-12T01:45:59Z

update doc: pass should now patch in bitlbee and skyped.conf

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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 2.0.0.27.
32* bitlbee >= 1.1.1dev. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably
33  newer versions probably 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
37
38`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available
39under OSX, 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 you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
49connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
50automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
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----
59wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
60tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
61cd 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
70make
71make install install-dev
72----
73
74- Get the plugin code:
75
76----
77git clone git://vmiklos.hu/bitlbee-skype
78----
79
80(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
81features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
82
83NOTE: It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to
84`/usr/local` by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins
85by default).
86
87- Compile and install it:
88
89----
90cd bitlbee-skype
91make prepare
92./configure
93make
94make install
95----
96
97- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
98
99(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
100package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
101previously used `DBus` interface had
102http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
103problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
104In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
105`pygobject`.)
106
107- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
108  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
109  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
110  BitlBee (see later).
111
112- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
113
114----
115skype
116skyped
117----
118
119NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be
120able to connect to Skype!
121
122- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
123
124----
125account add skype <user> <pass>
126----
127
128<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
129in `skyped.conf`.
130
131== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
132
133Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
134a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
135work, too.
136
137First run
138
139----
140vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
141----
142
143and create a password. You will need it at least once.
144
145Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
146
147----
148#!/bin/sh
149
150sleep 1
151skype &
152sleep 5
153skyped
154----
155
156Adjust the permissions:
157
158----
159chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
160----
161
162Then start the server:
163
164----
165vncserver
166----
167
168Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
169allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
170
171Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
172with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
173your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
174
175== What works
176
177- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
178
179- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
180
181- Sending messages
182
183- Receiving messages
184
185- Receiving away status changes
186
187- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
188
189- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
190
191- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
192
193- Adding / removing contacts
194
195- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
196
197- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
198
199- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
200
201- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
202
203- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
204
205- Group chat support:
206
207  * Detect if we're invited
208
209  * Send / receive group chat messages
210
211  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
212
213  * Part from group chats
214
215  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
216
217- Topic changes in group chats:
218
219  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
220
221  * Notice when someone changes the topic
222
223  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
224
225- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
226
227- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
228
229- Setting your mood text using the `nick` command.
230
231== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
232
233- Add a question callback for calls.
234
235- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
236
237- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
238  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
239  `/join` to a public chat..
240
241== I would like to have support for ...
242
243If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
244contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
245problem may be already fixed there.
246
247In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
248setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
249then it would be nice to include them here.
250
251== Known bugs
252
253- None at this time.
254
255== Screenshots
256
257You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
258
259== Additional resources
260
261You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
262http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here].
263
264The Skype API documentation is
265https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
266
267== Thanks
268
269for the following people:
270
271* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
272
273* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
274
275* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
276  messages
277
278* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
279  timezone different to mine
280
281* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
282
283Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
284
285// vim: ft=asciidoc
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