source: skype/README @ cc5f8ac

Last change on this file since cc5f8ac was cc5f8ac, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-09-07T22:14:51Z

add a sample public server which has skype support

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-hu>
3
4== Status
5
6[quote, 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 (one day I wanted to restart it because of an upgrade
20and just noticed it was running for 2+ months without crashing), I use
21it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching is required, you can
22just install it after installing BitlBee itself.
23
24NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
25a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
26engineer Skype's
27http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
28layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
29not..)
30
31== Requirements
32
33* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.72.
34* BitlBee >= @BITLBEE_VERSION@. Use old versions (0.5.1 or earlier) if
35  you have older BitlBee installed.
36* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
37
38NOTE: 1.x just does not work for me. I mailed the author but did not
39receive any answer so far.
40
41* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
42* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
43  install GTK for nothing, right?)
44* pyopenssl or python-gnutls.
45
46`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. Skype and Skype4py is
47available under Windows, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
48
49== How to set it up
50
51Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
52Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
53In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
54package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
55
56The benefit of this architecture is that you can run Skype and `skyped`
57on a machine different to the one where you run BitlBee (it can be even
58a public server) and/or your IRC client.
59
60NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped`
61connects to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
62
63=== Installing under Frugalware
64
65- Install the necessary packages:
66
67----
68# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
69----
70
71and you don't have to compile anything manually.
72
73=== Installing under Debian
74
75- Install the necessary development package:
76
77----
78# apt-get install bitlbee-dev python-gnutls
79----
80
81and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` and `skype4py` from source.
82
83=== Installing under OS X
84
85- Install the necessary packages from ports:
86
87NOTE: You have to edit the Portfile manually to include the install-dev target,
88just append install-dev after install-etc.
89
90----
91# port -v install bitlbee
92# port -v install py25-gobject
93----
94
95and you have to install `bitlbee-skype`, `skype4py` and `python-gnutls` from
96source.
97
98=== Installing from source
99
100NOTE: bitlbee-skype by default builds and installs skyped and the
101plugin. In case you just want to install the plugin for a public server
102or you want to use skyped with a public server (like
103`bitlbee1.asnetinc.net`), you don't need both.
104
105- You need the latest stable BitlBee release (unless you want to use a
106  public server):
107
108----
109$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
110$ tar xf bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@.tar.gz
111$ cd bitlbee-@BITLBEE_VERSION@
112----
113
114- Now compile and install it:
115
116----
117$ ./configure
118$ make
119# make install install-dev
120----
121
122- To install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py] from source
123  (unless you want to install the plugin for a public server):
124
125----
126$ tar -zxvf Skype4Py-x.x.x.x.tar.gz
127$ cd Skype4Py-x.x.x.x
128# python setup.py install
129----
130
131- To install http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-gnutls[python-gnutls] from source
132  (unless you want to install the plugin for a public server):
133
134----
135$ tar -zxvf python-gnutls-x.x.x.tar.gz
136$ cd python-gnutls-x.x.x
137# python setup.py install
138----
139
140NOTE: On OS X you will need the following hacks first:
141
142----
143$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib
144$ export CFLAGS="-I/opt/local/include"
145$ export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/local/lib"
146----
147
148- Get the plugin code (in an empty dir, or whereever you want, it does
149  not matter):
150
151----
152$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
153$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
154$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
155----
156
157- Compile and install it:
158
159----
160$ ./configure
161$ make
162# make install
163----
164
165This will install the plugin to where BitlBee expects them, which is
166`/usr/local/lib/bitlbee` if you installed BitlBee from source.
167
168=== Configuring
169
170- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
171  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
172  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
173  BitlBee (see later).
174
175NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
176if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
177
178- Generate the SSL pem files:
179
180----
181# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
182# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
183        -keyout skyped.key.pem
184----
185
186NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
187dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
188
189- If both pyopenssl and python-gnutls are available, then python-gnutls
190  will be used. This behaviour can be overwritten by:
191
192----
193$ export SKYPED_NO_GNUTLS=1
194----
195
196- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
197
198----
199$ skyped
200----
201
202- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
203
204----
205account add skype <user> <pass>
206account set skype/server localhost
207----
208
209<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
210in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
211`localhost` with the name of the machine.
212
213If you are running skyped on a custom port:
214
215----
216account set skype/port <port>
217----
218
219If you want to set your full name (optional):
220
221----
222account set skype/display_name "John Smith"
223----
224
225If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
226offline by default):
227
228----
229account set skype/skypeout_offline false
230----
231
232== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
233
234Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
235a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
236work, too.
237
238First run
239
240----
241$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
242----
243
244and create a password. You will need it at least once.
245
246Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
247
248----
249#!/bin/sh
250
251twm
252----
253
254Adjust the permissions:
255
256----
257$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
258----
259
260Then start the server:
261
262----
263$ vncserver
264----
265
266Then connect to it, start an `xterm`, set up Skype (username, password,
267enable X11 API and allow the `Skype4Py` client), quit from Skype, and
268start `skyped`. If you want to watch its traffic, enable debug messages
269and foreground mode:
270
271----
272$ skyped -n -d
273----
274
275== Features
276
277- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
278
279- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
280
281- Sending messages
282
283- Receiving messages
284
285- Receiving away status changes
286
287- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
288
289- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
290
291- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
292
293- Adding / removing contacts
294
295- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
296
297- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
298
299- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
300
301- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
302
303- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
304
305- Group chat support:
306
307  * Detect if we're invited
308
309  * Send / receive group chat messages
310
311  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
312
313  * Part from group chats
314
315  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
316
317- Topic changes in group chats:
318
319  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
320
321  * Notice when someone changes the topic
322
323  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
324
325- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
326
327- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
328
329- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
330
331- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
332  communication is encrypted.
333
334- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
335  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):
336
337  * `account set skype/call nick`
338  * `account set -del skype/call`
339
340- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
341  contacts.
342
343- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
344
345  * `account set skype/balance query`
346
347== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
348
349- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
350
351- Public chats. See
352  link:https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-381[this feature
353  request], this is because it is still not possible (under Linux) to
354  `join_chat` to a public chat..
355
356== I would like to have support for ...
357
358If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
359contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
360problem may be already fixed there.
361
362In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
363setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
364then it would be nice to include them here.
365
366== Known bugs
367
368- None at this time.
369
370== Screenshots
371
372You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
373
374== Additional resources
375
376You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
377http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
378
379The Skype API documentation is
380https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
381
382
383== Testimonials
384
385----
38600:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
387----
388
389----
390It's really working great so far.
391
392Good Job and thank you!
393Sebastian
394----
395
396----
397Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
398
399Martin
400----
401
402----
403Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
404skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
405available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
406without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
407lot.
408
409Lukas
410----
411
412----
41302:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
41402:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
415----
416
417----
41818:10 < miCSu> it works fine
419----
420
421== Thanks
422
423for the following people:
424
425* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
426
427* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
428
429* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
430  messages
431
432* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
433  timezone different to mine
434
435* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
436
437* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
438
439Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
440
441// vim: ft=asciidoc
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