[WIP] VoIP and XMPP script
#1
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Hi guys,
I am a forth year computer science student and I will be doing a XBMC project this year. The main goal of the project is to integrate VoIP functionality into XBMC. I am going to try and get a basic script working with google talk first an then build on top of that. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are appreciated. Here is the project specification for anyone thats interested.

Eoin
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#2
Ow yeah. Google Talk in XBMC. Looking forward to it. Good luck!
Joy In Repitition
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#3
Smile 
eoin - awesome! There are loads of us looking for something like this - check out tons of links from my post here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=4602&page=6

I'd suggest you check out Empathy's Google Talk (incl Video) support on Ubuntu for starting point for code and libraries you could scavenge... Please keep us all in the loop on your progress!
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#4
Just replying to my own message with a starter for ten - here are more starting points for code and libraries you can build on (the beauty of open source is that you don't have to code everyting from scratch yourself...):
Wishlist for features (overlapping and on top of your project spec):
  • Lots of configurable options (e.g. pause media on incoming call or not, mute if music is playing on incoming call or not, option to set "away" or "do not disturb" when watching movies/listening to music and so on)
  • Video calling is a definite wishlist requirement. Showing both "remote" and local camera (in a smaller box, configurable location) would be good (example: like skype or empathy video calls)
  • Easy navigation of contact list and call setup: ideally should be possible to do without keyboard/mouse: an easy menu option from main XBMC window leading to a remote control operable contact list would be good
  • supporting text chat as well as calls? keyboard optional
  • leveraging XBMC OSD notification options? making it really easy to answer or ignore an incoming call
  • optional: ring on incoming call using a different audio output than main xbmc / call setup: use case is where people have XBMC connected to a receiver or TV but are switched to a different source: if your script could ring on an external speaker, one could switch TV+receiver to XBMC source and answer the call?
  • an obvious one: (securely) store account details to they only have to be entered once
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#5
if you can make this happen it would be awesome.


Good Luck.
All Things PVR
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#6
pleeeeeeease consider a SIP client instead, that's where the world is going.
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#7
Oh - some more info - as has been pointed out here, some of these bits and bobs exist for SIP / Asterisk:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=71206
http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-pbx-addon/
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#8
this would be awesome to have. I agree SIP would be great.
Nvidia Shield with Kodi 18
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#9
Alright guys,
Thanks for all the responses. I have spent the last week reading/researching on SIP, XMPP, VOIP and the various other standards.

@ extrospection

As regards to the inclusion of skype I think i will develop a VoIP, messaging plugin first and then take on the task of integrating skype via SkypeKit (If possible).

Thanks for all the links, keep em coming.

@ jamesdew

I am planing on integrating a SIP client.

@ everyone

I will be spending my weekend trying to get a basic google talk script working and hopefully will have something to post soon.

eoin
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#10
eoin Wrote:@ extrospection

As regards to the inclusion of skype I think i will develop a VoIP, messaging plugin first and then take on the task of integrating skype via SkypeKit (If possible).

Thanks for all the links, keep em coming.
eoin - I'm not fussed about Skype (it being - for the time being [1]) closed source and all.

Any easy (for the user) video chat integration with xbmc would rock my boat!

The Farsight and Telepathy libraries might help you jumpstart GTalk voice + video chat. I guess the next thing to keep an eye out for is Apple's "FaceTime" (the iPhone video chat app) which allegedly is based on open protocols and might be opened in the future[2].

Keep up the good work! We're all excited to see what you come up with!

[1] - http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2009/11/sky...ource.html
[2] - http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/rumor...-20100910/
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#11
Sorry I haven't updated this post in a bit, been busy.

Just to let anyone who is interested know the route for this project has changed. We feel that the best way to add IM and VoIP functionality to XBMC is to add support for telepathy. I don't think that this can be achieved by a script but requires a patch to the XBMC source.

While in the long run this new route will lead to IM and VoIP support this leaves you guys with nothing to use in the short term. As an alternative during my experimenting a wrote a small google chat script, I can develop this a bit more and make it available if there is any interest in such a script?

I will probably start a new post for this project it no longer belongs in the script forum.

I have set up a blog for the project.

As always any opinions/ideas welcome.

eo
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#12
Building on Telepathy sounds like a smart move; see also one of my first posts in this thread. Not sure why your blog mentioned getting it running on Windows -- you do know XBMC Live is built on Ubuntu (which, incidentally, has all the telepathy packages ready to go?) -- it might be a better starting point...?

Also check out these, if you haven't already. I don't know much about developing add-ons for XBMC, but I would imagine you don't need to tinker with the XBMC core code...:

Source: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2010/08/30/finall...rma-beta1/
Quote:We have refactored everything that doesn’t belong inside the core of XBMC to be an addon. So in the future, your scrapers, visualizations, skins, etc. will update automatically (unless disabled). Since opening the xbmc.org repository a few weeks ago, submissions have been pouring in. We expect to have a very nice collection by the time we reach our final release.

See also
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-ons

Keep up the good work and keep us updated with your progress! Sofa-to-sofa video conferencing is coming to XBMC thanks to you!! :-)
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#13
Thanks for picking up this project eoin. I hope it can be an instructive one.

Make sure you understand the differences between add-ons and scripts for XBMC (see extrospectioni's second link). What you want to do cannot be done in an add-on, but I believe a script should be sufficient for your purposes.

You might look into telepathy-python for this:
http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Te...y%20Python

And here is some light documentation for telepathy-python:
http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/doc/boo...ython.html
There are links to more documentation for Telepathy in general on the right-hand side of the page, but it seems to be very unfinished.

You may also want to look at the following presentation for some further direction:
http://raphael.slinckx.net/files/telepat...c-2007.pdf
Page 80 has some good sample code for a VoIP implementation using telepathy-python.

And as extrospection also mentioned, you may want to start with linux first as it would likely save you from some huge headaches just dealing with telepathy itself. Maybe a lot of improvements have been made since I last dealt with the Windows build to make it easier to work with, but from your questions, it sounds like it may not yet be the case Smile

In any case, good luck.
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#14
how is this coming along? any development?
Nvidia Shield with Kodi 18
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#15
This idea is something that I have been thinking about for over a year or so now. Unfortunately, I extent of programming knowledge is in VB - not so much help here. Great to see some enthusiasm here..

I know for the longest time everyone was saying that video calling doesn't belong in XBMC. Thing is many other platforms are starting to move that way - now with GoogleTV and Microsoft having their own platforms - this makes perfect sense (Now if they could all play together - imaging not being able to call your friend because his cell phone is CDMA and yours is GSM - that baffles us, but not being able to talk to a skype user from ichat or other is perfectly acceptable to most).

Anyways - check out this webcam - designed to work with Logitech implementation of GoogleTV (Webcam on your tv mixed with a mediacenter platform?? But so many said neh.. ) but has been used successfully as a regular webcam.

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/smartTV/ac...ces/tv-cam

Anyways - if there is any way I can help - testing etc - I'll do what I can..

Shawn
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