source: skype/README @ ca911b4

Last change on this file since ca911b4 was 6344674, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-06-01T22:44:26Z

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-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 2.0.0.68.
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* pyopenssl or python-gnutls.
38
39`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. Skype and Skype4py is
40available under Windows, 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
49The benefit of this architecture is that you can run Skype and `skyped`
50on a machine different to the one where you run BitlBee (it can be even
51a public server) and/or your IRC client.
52
53NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped`
54connects to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
55
56=== Installing under Frugalware
57
58- Install the necessary packages:
59
60----
61# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype skype4py
62----
63
64and you don't have to compile anything manually.
65
66=== Installing under Debian
67
68- Install the necessary development package:
69
70----
71# apt-get install bitlbee-dev
72----
73
74and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` and `skype4py` from source.
75
76=== Installing from source
77
78- You need the latest stable BitlBee release:
79
80----
81$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
82$ tar xf bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
83$ cd bitlbee-1.2
84----
85
86NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
87
88- Now compile and install it:
89
90----
91$ ./configure
92$ make
93# make install install-dev
94----
95
96- Get the plugin code:
97
98----
99$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
100$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
101$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
102----
103
104It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
105by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
106
107- Compile and install it:
108
109----
110$ ./configure
111$ make
112# make install
113----
114
115- To install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py] from source:
116
117----
118$ tar -zxvf Skype4Py-x.x.x.x.tar.gz
119$ cd Skype4Py-x.x.x.x
120# python setup.py install
121----
122
123=== Configuring
124
125- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
126  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
127  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
128  BitlBee (see later).
129
130NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
131if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
132
133- Generate the SSL pem files:
134
135----
136# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
137# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
138        -keyout skyped.key.pem
139----
140
141NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
142dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
143
144- If both pyopenssl and python-gnutls are available, then python-gnutls
145  will be used. This behaviour can be overwritten by:
146
147----
148$ export SKYPED_NO_GNUTLS=1
149----
150
151- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
152
153----
154$ skyped
155----
156
157- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
158
159----
160account add skype <user> <pass>
161account set skype/server localhost
162----
163
164<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
165in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
166`localhost` with the name of the machine.
167
168If you are running skyped on a custom port:
169
170----
171account set skype/port <port>
172----
173
174If you want to set your full name (optional):
175
176----
177account set skype/display_name "John Smith"
178----
179
180If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
181offline by default):
182
183----
184account set skype/skypeout_offline false
185----
186
187== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
188
189Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
190a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
191work, too.
192
193First run
194
195----
196$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
197----
198
199and create a password. You will need it at least once.
200
201Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
202
203----
204#!/bin/sh
205
206twm
207----
208
209Adjust the permissions:
210
211----
212$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
213----
214
215Then start the server:
216
217----
218$ vncserver
219----
220
221Then connect to it, start an `xterm`, set up Skype (username, password,
222enable X11 API and allow the `Skype4Py` client), quit from Skype, and
223start `skyped`. If you want to watch its traffic, enable debug messages
224and foreground mode:
225
226----
227$ skyped -n -d
228----
229
230== Features
231
232- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
233
234- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
235
236- Sending messages
237
238- Receiving messages
239
240- Receiving away status changes
241
242- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
243
244- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
245
246- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
247
248- Adding / removing contacts
249
250- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
251
252- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
253
254- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
255
256- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
257
258- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
259
260- Group chat support:
261
262  * Detect if we're invited
263
264  * Send / receive group chat messages
265
266  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
267
268  * Part from group chats
269
270  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
271
272- Topic changes in group chats:
273
274  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
275
276  * Notice when someone changes the topic
277
278  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
279
280- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
281
282- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
283
284- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
285
286- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
287  communication is encrypted.
288
289- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
290  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):
291
292  * `account set skype/call nick`
293  * `account set -del skype/call`
294
295- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
296  contacts.
297
298- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
299
300  * `account set skype/balance query`
301
302== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
303
304- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
305
306- Public chats. See
307  link:https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-381[this feature
308  request], this is because it is still not possible (under Linux) to
309  `join_chat` to a public chat..
310
311- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
312  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
313  server.
314
315== I would like to have support for ...
316
317If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
318contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
319problem may be already fixed there.
320
321In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
322setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
323then it would be nice to include them here.
324
325== Known bugs
326
327- None at this time.
328
329== Screenshots
330
331You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
332
333== Additional resources
334
335You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
336http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
337
338The Skype API documentation is
339https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
340
341
342== Testimonials
343
344----
34500:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
346----
347
348----
349It's really working great so far.
350
351Good Job and thank you!
352Sebastian
353----
354
355----
356Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
357
358Martin
359----
360
361----
362Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
363skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
364available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
365without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
366lot.
367
368Lukas
369----
370
371----
37202:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
37302:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
374----
375
376== Thanks
377
378for the following people:
379
380* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
381
382* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
383
384* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
385  messages
386
387* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
388  timezone different to mine
389
390* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
391
392* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
393
394Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
395
396// vim: ft=asciidoc
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