source: skype/README @ e3d0b10

= Skype plugin for BitlBee
Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-hu>

== Status

[Wilmer van der Gaast (author of BitlBee)]
____
Okay, this exists now, with lots of thanks to vmiklos for his *excellent*
work!!

It's not in the main BitlBee and it'll never be for various reasons, but
because it's a plugin that shouldn't be a problem.
____

One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it.

It's pretty stable, I use it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching
is required, you can just install it after installing BitlBee itself.

NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
engineer Skype's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
not..)

== Requirements

* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.63.
* BitlBee >= 1.1.1dev. The latest version I've tested is 1.2.
* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
  install GTK for nothing, right?)
* pyopenssl or python-gnutls.

`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. Skype and Skype4py is
available under Windows, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.

== How to set it up

Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.

NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped` can
connect to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.

- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user:

----
# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
----

- You need the latest stable BitlBee release:

----
$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
$ tar xf bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
$ cd bitlbee-1.2
----

NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.

- Now compile and install it:

----
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install install-dev
----

- Get the plugin code:

----
$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
----

It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).

- Compile and install it:

----
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
----

- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].

- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
  BitlBee (see later).

NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.

- Generate the SSL pem files:

----
# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
        -keyout skyped.key.pem
----

NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
dir. For example make it readable by just your user.

- If both pyopenssl and python-gnutls are available, then python-gnutls
  will be used. This behaviour can be overwritten by:

----
$ export SKYPED_NO_GNUTLS=1
----

- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):

----
$ skyped
----

- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:

----
account add skype <user> <pass>
account set skype/server localhost
----

<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
`localhost` with the name of the machine.

If you are running skyped on a custom port:

----
account set skype/port <port>
----

If you want to set your full name (optional):

----
account set skype/display_name "John Smith"
----

If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
offline by default):

----
account set skype/skypeout_offline false
----

== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)

Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
work, too.

First run

----
$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
----

and create a password. You will need it at least once.

Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:

----
#!/bin/sh

twm
----

Adjust the permissions:

----
$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
----

Then start the server:

----
$ vncserver
----

Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable
auto-login, start skyped and allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when
Skype asks about it).

Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)

== Features

- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype

- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected

- Sending messages

- Receiving messages

- Receiving away status changes

- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)

- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits

- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages

- Adding / removing contacts

- Set away state when you do a `/away`.

- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`

- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`

- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation

- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file

- Group chat support:

  * Detect if we're invited

  * Send / receive group chat messages

  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)

  * Part from group chats

  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)

- Topic changes in group chats:

  * Show the current topic (if any) on join

  * Notice when someone changes the topic

  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`

- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.

- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)

- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.

- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
  communication is encrypted.

- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):

  * `account set skype/call nick`
  * `account set -del skype/call`

- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
  contacts.

- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:

  * `account set skype/balance query`

== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)

- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.

- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
  `/join` to a public chat..

- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
  server.

== I would like to have support for ...

If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
problem may be already fixed there.

In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
then it would be nice to include them here.

== Known bugs

- None at this time.

== Screenshots

You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].

== Additional resources

You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].

The Skype API documentation is
https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.


== Testimonials

----
00:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
----

----
It's really working great so far.

Good Job and thank you!
Sebastian
----

----
Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.

Martin
----

----
Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
lot.

Lukas
----

----
02:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
02:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
----

== Thanks

for the following people:

* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface

* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped

* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
  messages

* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
  timezone different to mine

* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas

* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback

Back to my link:/projects[projects page].

// vim: ft=asciidoc