source: skype/README @ d96380b

Last change on this file since d96380b was fdde7d8, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-01-12T20:22:42Z

one idea for the todo

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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----
59$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
60$ tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
61$ cd 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
70$ make
71# make install install-dev
72----
73
74- Get the plugin code:
75
76----
77$ git 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----
90$ cd bitlbee-skype
91$ make prepare
92$ ./configure
93$ make
94# make 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/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
112NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
113if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
114
115- Generate the SSL pem files:
116
117----
118# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
119# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
120        -keyout skyped.key.pem
121----
122
123NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
124dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
125
126- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
127
128----
129$ skype
130$ skyped
131----
132
133NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be
134able to connect to Skype!
135
136- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
137
138----
139account add skype <user> <pass>
140----
141
142<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
143in `skyped.conf`.
144
145== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
146
147Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
148a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
149work, too.
150
151First run
152
153----
154$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
155----
156
157and create a password. You will need it at least once.
158
159Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
160
161----
162#!/bin/sh
163
164sleep 1
165skype &
166sleep 5
167skyped
168----
169
170Adjust the permissions:
171
172----
173$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
174----
175
176Then start the server:
177
178----
179$ vncserver
180----
181
182Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
183allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
184
185Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
186with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
187your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
188
189== What works
190
191- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
192
193- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
194
195- Sending messages
196
197- Receiving messages
198
199- Receiving away status changes
200
201- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
202
203- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
204
205- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
206
207- Adding / removing contacts
208
209- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
210
211- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
212
213- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
214
215- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
216
217- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
218
219- Group chat support:
220
221  * Detect if we're invited
222
223  * Send / receive group chat messages
224
225  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
226
227  * Part from group chats
228
229  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
230
231- Topic changes in group chats:
232
233  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
234
235  * Notice when someone changes the topic
236
237  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
238
239- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
240
241- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
242
243- Setting your mood text using the `nick` command.
244
245- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
246  communication is encrypted.
247
248== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
249
250- Add a question callback for calls.
251
252- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
253
254- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
255  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
256  `/join` to a public chat..
257
258- Split skyped from the plugin, so that one could install just the relevant
259  code if they are not running on the same machine.
260
261== I would like to have support for ...
262
263If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
264contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
265problem may be already fixed there.
266
267In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
268setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
269then it would be nice to include them here.
270
271== Known bugs
272
273- None at this time.
274
275== Screenshots
276
277You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
278
279== Additional resources
280
281You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
282http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here].
283
284The Skype API documentation is
285https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
286
287== Thanks
288
289for the following people:
290
291* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
292
293* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
294
295* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
296  messages
297
298* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
299  timezone different to mine
300
301* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
302
303Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
304
305// vim: ft=asciidoc
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