telegram-purple/README.md

Telegram-Purple
===============

Telegram-purple is a Libpurple plugin that adds support for the Telegram messenger. Its still in an early (pre-alpha) development stage, but already provides basic chat functionality and group chats.

This plugin is based on [Telegram-cli](http://github.com/vysheng/tg), a full-featured terminal-based client for Telegram created by [Vysheng](http://github.com/vysheng).


# Version 0.2.0

Warning, this version is mainly for development and testing and NOT for productive use.Even though it already provides basic features, you should still expect bugs and crashes when running it.

When encountering a crash or some other bugs, please report it to us, preferably together with a backtrace of the crashed application [https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/GetABacktrace]

## Already Implemented:

    - Chats/Group-Chats
        * Send/receive messages
        * Discover buddies/chats
        * Discover buddy state and info
    - Profile Pictures
        * Download and use profile pictures

## TODO:

The following features are currently planned and will probably be added in the future:

    - Encrypted chats
    - Picture, audio and video messages
    - File transfers
    - Geo-locations
    - Multiple accounts on one client
    - Respect libpurple proxy settings (implemented but untested)
    - Adium Plugin


## Platform Support

Currently we can only provide an installation guide for Linux, even though it should be possible to compile this plugin on other platforms. If someone manages to create a working Windows, BSD or OSX build, please let us know.


# Installation Instructions

Unfortunately there are currently no packages, so you need to compile it yourself:

## 1. Get this repository either from Bitbucket or from the Github mirror.

        git clone https://bitbucket.org/telegrampurple/telegram-purple

## 2. Fetch all needed dependencies

This plugin depends on a working libpurple client (like Pidgin or Finch) and the following packages:

        - glib-2.0
        - libssl
        - libpurple
        - libzlib

### Fedora

On Fedora you can install all dependencies with:

        sudo yum install gcc openssl-devel glib2-devel libpurple-devel

### Debian

On Debian-based systems you can use:

        sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libglib2.0-dev libpurple-dev


NOTE: Ubuntu is currently not working, since libpurple doesn't seem to find libssl when loading the plugin. It will compile, but Pidgin won't be able to load it. 


### OpenSUSE

        
        sudo zypper install gcc glib glib-devel libpurple libpurple-devel zlib-devel openssl libopenssl-devel



## 3. Compile and install

        make
        sudo make install


# Usage

After succesfully completing all steps mentioned in the installation instructions, you should restart Pidgin to ensure that the plugin is loaded. When everything went well, Telegram should show up in the account manager:

![Create a new Telegram account](http://lauschgift.org/telegram-purple/res/install-1.png)

The username is your current phone number, including your full country prefix instead of a leading '0'. For Germany, this would be '+49' for example. Telegram will verify your phone number by sending you a verification code via sms. You will be prompted for this code, once that happens.

![Provide a phone number](http://lauschgift.org/telegram-purple/res/install-2.png)
 
Now you should be able to see all your contacts and chats in your buddy list and send/receive messages.


# Unicode Emojis for Pidgin

The Telegram phone applications for iOS and Android make use of standardized Unicode smileys (called [Emojis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji)). Pidgin
does not display those smileys natively, but you can install a custom smiley theme like [https://github.com/stv0g/unicode-emoji] or [https://github.com/VxJasonxV/emoji-for-pidgin] and activate it under Settings > Themes > Smiley Theme.