= Skype plugin for BitlBee Miklos Vajna == 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 skype4py ---- and you don't have to compile anything manually. - If you use Debian: ---- # apt-get install bitlbee-dev ---- and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` and `skype4py` from source. - Otherwise, 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 ---- - To install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py] from source: ---- $ tar -zxvf Skype4Py-x.x.x.x.tar.gz $ cd Skype4Py-x.x.x.x # python setup.py install ---- - 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 account set skype/server localhost ---- should be your Skype account name, 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 ---- 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 `) * 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