path: root/protocols/skype/README

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

== Status

[quote, 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 (one day I wanted to restart it because of an upgrade
and just noticed it was running for 2+ months without crashing), 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 4.1.0.20.
* BitlBee >= 3.0. The latest version I've tested is @BITLBEE_VERSION@. Use
  old versions (see the NEWS file about which one) if you have older BitlBee
  installed.
* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
  The latest version I've tested is 1.0.32.0.

* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.

* OS: `bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. The plugin part
  has been tested under Free/Open/NetBSD as well. The daemon part has been
  tested on Windows, too.

== 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.

The benefit of this architecture is that you can run Skype and `skyped`
on a machine different to the one where you run BitlBee (it can be even
a public server) and/or your IRC client.

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

=== Installing

Either use your package manager to install the Skype plugin, using something
like:

----
# apt-get install skyped bitlbee-plugin-skype
----

Or install http://sourceforge.net/projects/skype4py/[Skype4Py], and build
BitlBee with `--skype=1`.

=== Configuring

See the manpage of `skyped`.

== 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

blackbox
----

Adjust the permissions:

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

Then start the server:

----
$ vncserver
----

Then connect to it, start an `xterm`, set up Skype (username, password,
enable X11 API and allow the `Skype4Py` client), quit from Skype, and
start `skyped`. If you want to watch its traffic, enable debug messages
and foreground mode:

----
$ skyped -n -d
----

== 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):

  * `/ctcp nick call`
  * `/ctcp nick hangup`

- Managing outgoing SkypeOut or conference calls:

  * `account skype set call +18005551234`
  * `account skype set call nick1 nick2`
  * `account skype set -del call`

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

- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:

  * `account skype set balance query`

- For debug purposes, it's possible to send any command to `skyped`. To
  achieve this, you need to:

  * `account skype set skypeconsole true`

  * then writing `skypeconsole: <command>` will work in the control
    channel.

  * `account skype set skypeconsole_receive true` will make the
    `skypeconsole` account dump all the received raw traffic for you

- If you want to automatically join bookmarked groupchats right after
  you logged in, do:

  * `account skype set auto_join true`

- Edited messages are shown with the `EDIT:` prefix. If you don't like
  this, you can set your own prefix using:

  * `account skype set edit_prefix "updated message:"`

- The `echo123` test account is hidden by default. If you want to see it:

  * `account skype set test_join true`

- Mood texts are not shown by default.

  * If you want to see them: `account skype set show_moods true`
  * If you want to change your mood text: `account skype set mood_text 'foo bar'`

- Group support:

  * To enable: `account skype set read_groups true`
  * Skype groups are told to BitlBee
  * The usual `/invite` in a group channel adds the buddy to the group in skype
    as well (and if necessary, it creates a new group in Skype)

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

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

- Public chats. See
  link:https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-381[this feature
  request], this is because it is still not possible (under Linux) to
  `join_chat` to a public chat..

- Add yasrd (Yet Another Skype-Related Daemon) to allow using a public
  server for users who are behind NAT.

== 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 bzr 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

- File transfers are view-only from BitlBee. Quoting the
  https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc/FILETRANSFER_object[relevant
  documentation]: 'File transfers cannot be initiated nor accepted via
  API commands.' So it's not something I can add support for, sadly.

== Screenshots

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

== Additional resources

The Skype API documentation is
http://developer.skype.com/resources/public_api_ref.zip[here] if you're
interested.

== Testimonials

----
00:56 < scathe> 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!
----

----
18:10 < miCSu> it works fine
----

----
13:56 < seo> i just want to thank you :)
13:56 < seo> for bitlbee-skype
13:57 < seo> it's working very well, so, again, thank you for your work, and for sharing it
----

----
22:16 < ecraven> vmiklos: thanks a lot for the skype plugin for bitlbee!
----

----
I'm blind and so I have to use a screen reader, in my case Gnome-Orca.
But since Skype is written in QT, while Orca uses gtk+, I have no direct
access to the Skype interface. That's why I desided to use Skyped and
Erc.
The text console is fully accessible.
Thank you very much.

Hermann
----

----
i love that bitlbeeplugin. big thx for that.

michael
----

----
23:47 < krisfremen> thanks for creating this fabulous piece of software vmiklos :)
----

== Thanks

to the following people:

* people in link:AUTHORS[AUTHORS] for their contributions

* 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

* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback

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

// vim: ft=asciidoc