= Skype plugin for BitlBee Miklos Vajna == Status 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. Not a big deal, I wrote it in two days or so (and not because I'm a genius or anything ;-) ). I think it's pretty stable, but it needs wider testing. Also see the 'Known bugs' section, I really hope those random hangups will be fixed soon by Skype. Oh, before I forget. I'm not a wizard, the Skype API documentation is https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested. == 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 connecto to your Skype client. NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped` automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.) - If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee` and `bitlbee-skype` packages from http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo]. - You need the BitlBee bzr branch: ---- bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ ---- NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 245. - Now compile and install it: ---- ./configure make make install install-dev ---- - Get the plugin code: ---- git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git ---- (Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what features/bugfixes will you miss in this case). - Compile and install it: ---- make prepare ./configure make make install ---- - Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server): ---- skype skyped ---- NOTE: It's important to start skyped on the same machine and using the same user as you run Skype as it uses the session DBus for communication! - Start your IRC client, connect to BitlBee and add your account: ---- account add skype account set 0/server localhost ---- IMPORTANT: should be your skype account name. This way you won't see yourself joining to `&bitlbee`. NOTE: the option is not used currently. == 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 /usr/bin/sleep 1 /usr/bin/skype & /usr/bin/sleep 5 /usr/sbin/skyped ---- Adjust the permissions: ---- chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup ---- Then start the server: ---- vncserver ---- Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable autologin, and allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it). == What works - 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 == What needs to be done (aka. TODO) - Group chat support. Sadly I'm not too motivated to implement this at the moment. - Support for receiving messages which consists of multiple lines. - Support for receiving edited messages. - Add a question callback for calls. == I would like to have support for ... If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please contact me! 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 - Sometimes when you get a lot of messages in a short time, some of the messages are dropped. This is a known bug in Skype itself as of version 1.4.0.99 (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[link]). == Screenshots You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here]. == Changelog You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here]. // vim: ft=asciidoc