SkPy

An unofficial Python library for interacting with the Skype HTTP API.

Here be dragons

This code is liable to fall apart if any part of the upstream API changes. You have been warned.

Requirements

• Python 2.6+ (includes 3.x)
• BeautifulSoup
• Requests

Getting started

from skpy import Skype
sk = Skype(username, password, tokenFile) # connect to Skype

sk.user # you
sk.contacts # your contacts
sk.chats # your conversations

buddychat = sk.contacts[buddyname].chat # 1-to-1 conversation
groupchat = sk.chats.create([buddyname]) # new group conversation

groupchat.sendMsg(content) # plain-text message
groupchat.sendFile(open(filename, "rb"), filename) # file upload
groupchat.sendContact(sk.contacts[buddyname]) # contact sharing

Check the documentation for more examples or the full API.

State-synced methods

Some APIs, such as recent conversations or messages, include a state URL for the next query -- this allows you to fetch the next chunk of data without resending any duplicates. Wrapper methods for APIs that support state syncing (e.g. SkypeChat.getMsgs()) automatically handle this for you.

Rate limiting and session reuse

If you make too many authentication attempts, the Skype API may temporarily rate limit you, or require a captcha to continue. For the latter, you will need to complete this in a browser with a matching IP address.

To avoid this, you should reuse the Skype token where possible. A token only appears to last 24 hours (web.skype.com forces re-authentication after that time), though you can check the expiry with sk.tokenExpiry. Pass a filename as the third argument to the Skype() constructor to read and write session information to that file.

Writing event-processing programs

Make your class a subclass of SkypeEventLoop, then override the onEvent(event) method to handle incoming messages and other events.

from skpy import SkypeEventLoop, SkypeNewMessageEvent
class SkypePing(SkypeEventLoop):
    def __init__(self):
        super(SkypePing, self).__init__(username, password)
    def onEvent(self, event):
        if isinstance(event, SkypeNewMessageEvent) \
          and not event.msg.userId == self.userId \
          and "ping" in event.msg.content:
            event.msg.chat.sendMsg("Pong!")

Create an instance and call its loop() method to start processing events. For programs with a frontend (e.g. a custom client), you'll likely want to put the event loop in its own thread.