Everything that you should ever need is available as aliases in the Skype4Py package. Import it using the standard form of the import statement:

import Skype4Py

Importing the whole package into your script's namespace using from Skype4Py import * is generally discouraged. You should also not access the modules in the package directly as they are considered an implementation detail and may change in future versions without notice.

The package provides the following:

• Classes

  Skype4Py.Skype, an alias for Skype4Py.skype.Skype

  Skype4Py.CallChannelManager, an alias for Skype4Py.callchannel.CallChannelManager

• Constants

  Everything from the Skype4Py.enums module.

  platform, either 'windows', 'posix' or 'darwin' depending on the current platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).

• Errors

  Skype4Py.SkypeError, an alias for Skype4Py.errors.SkypeError

  Skype4Py.SkypeAPIError, an alias for Skype4Py.errors.SkypeAPIError

The two classes exposed by the Skype4Py package are the only ones that are to be instantiated directly. They in turn provide means of instantiating the remaining ones. They are also the only classes that provide event handlers (for more information about events and how to use them, see the EventHandlingBase class.

Every Skype4Py script instantiates at least the Skype4Py.Skype class which gives access to the Skype client running currently in the system. Follow the Skype4Py.skype.Skype reference to see what you can do with it.

Warning! While reading this documentation, it is important to keep in mind that everything needed is in the top package level because the documentation refers to all objects in the places they actually live.

This short example connects to Skype client and prints the user's full name and the names of all the contacts from the contacts list:

import Skype4Py

# Create an instance of the Skype class.
skype = Skype4Py.Skype()

# Connect the Skype object to the Skype client.
skype.Attach()

# Obtain some information from the client and print it out.
print 'Your full name:', skype.CurrentUser.FullName
print 'Your contacts:'
for user in skype.Friends:
    print '    ', user.FullName

Skype4Py uses two different naming conventions. The first one applies to interfaces derived from Skype4COM, a COM library which was an inspiration for Skype4Py. This convention uses the CapCase scheme for class names, properties, methods and their arguments. The constants use the mixedCase scheme.

The second naming convention is more "Pythonic" and is used by all other parts of the package including internal objects. It uses mostly the same CapCase scheme for class names (including exception names) with a small difference in abbreviations. Where the first convention would use a SkypeApiError name, the second one uses SkypeAPIError. Other names including properties, methods, arguments, variables and module names use lowercase letters with underscores.