path: root/skype/README

= Skype plugin for BitlBee
Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>

== 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.

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. 1.4.0.74 did *not* work for me.
* bitlbee-dev >= rev245. Previous versions need patching.
* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses `DBus` by default. The latest version I've tested is 0.9.28.3.
* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
* pygobject

== 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 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
----

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

(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
previously used `DBus` interface had
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
`pygobject`.)

- 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!

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

----
account add skype <user> <pass>
account set 0/server localhost
----

IMPORTANT: <user> should be your Skype account name. This way you won't see
yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.

NOTE: the <pass> 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

sleep 1
skype &
sleep 5
skyped
----

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, 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.)

== 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

- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file

- Handle topic changes

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

- Group chat support. For an initial support the followings would be needed:

  * Detect if we're invited.

  * Send / receive group chat 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! Please also try the 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 http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].

== Additional resources

You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
link:http://git.frugalware.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=bitlbee-skype.git;a=summary[here].

== Thanks

for the following people:

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

* awahlig (from the skype forums), for making suggestions to skyped

* Gabor Adam TOTH, for usable bugreports

// vim: ft=asciidoc