source: skype/README @ d1eb24c

Last change on this file since d1eb24c was f5aedd91, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-01-10T16:10:10Z

added default server "localhost"

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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- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
108
109----
110skype
111skyped
112----
113
114NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be
115able to connect to Skype!
116
117- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
118
119----
120account add skype <user> <pass>
121----
122
123IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
124yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
125
126NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
127
128== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
129
130Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
131a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
132work, too.
133
134First run
135
136----
137vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
138----
139
140and create a password. You will need it at least once.
141
142Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
143
144----
145#!/bin/sh
146
147sleep 1
148skype &
149sleep 5
150skyped
151----
152
153Adjust the permissions:
154
155----
156chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
157----
158
159Then start the server:
160
161----
162vncserver
163----
164
165Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
166allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
167
168Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
169with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
170your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
171
172== What works
173
174- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
175
176- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
177
178- Sending messages
179
180- Receiving messages
181
182- Receiving away status changes
183
184- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
185
186- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
187
188- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
189
190- Adding / removing contacts
191
192- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
193
194- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
195
196- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
197
198- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
199
200- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
201
202- Group chat support:
203
204  * Detect if we're invited
205
206  * Send / receive group chat messages
207
208  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
209
210  * Part from group chats
211
212  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
213
214- Topic changes in group chats:
215
216  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
217
218  * Notice when someone changes the topic
219
220  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
221
222- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
223
224== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
225
226- Add a question callback for calls.
227
228- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
229
230- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
231  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
232  `/join` to a public chat..
233
234- Handle skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
235
236== I would like to have support for ...
237
238If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
239contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
240problem may be already fixed there.
241
242In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
243setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
244then it would be nice to include them here.
245
246== Known bugs
247
248- None at this time.
249
250== Screenshots
251
252You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
253
254== Additional resources
255
256You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
257http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here].
258
259The Skype API documentation is
260https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
261
262== Thanks
263
264for the following people:
265
266* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
267
268* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
269
270* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
271  messages
272
273* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
274  timezone different to mine
275
276* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
277
278Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
279
280// vim: ft=asciidoc
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