Development for the Linux version of Skype has always been slow and one of the greatest addition to Skype, “The Skype Tool Bar” is not available for Linux. So I decided to implement my own version of it. What makes the The Skype Tool Bar so great is that it turn any 10 digit phone number on a web page into a Skype link. My own implantation looks for phone numbers in web pages and makes hyper links out of them. When clicking on the link, Skype will ring and will be dialing the number / link you clicked on.

No more copying and pasting phone numbers to Skype. SkypeOut directly from your online contact list (say Gmail contacts) without any manual synchronization or addition to your Skype contact list.

My own implantation consists of a easy five step process and requires a Skype out account.

Download and install the latest version of Skype 1.4*** for Linux you can get it here. http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/

Install the GreaseMonkey FireFox extension.

GreaseMonkey allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. This ability to customize the way a webpage display allows us to create the Skype link but, we need a script to do this. Step Three:

Install the skypelinkify for linux GreaseMonky script.

Step Four:

Install Philipp Kolmann's action_handler_0.6.py script.

Download this script to your home directory http://www.kolmann.at/philipp/linux/skype_actio...

In a terminal type these commands one at a time

sudo mv /home/yourusername/action_handler_0.6.py /usr/local/bin/

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/action_handler_0.6.py

Step Five:

Configure FireFox to use Skype’s network.protocol-handler.app.skype.

* Open Mozilla (Firefox)

* Type about:config in the address-bar to open the configuration editor.

* Use the scroll bar to navigate to the network.protocol… section.

* Check if the network protocol section includes a network.protocol-handler.app.skype key.

* If a key exists, edit it. If no key exists, create a key by right-clicking on any key and selecting New -> String from the pull-down menu.

* Enter network.protocol-handler.app.skype as the key name.

* Enter /usr/local/bin/action_handler_0.6.py as the key value.

Restart FireFox and lets give it a try!

The phone number below should now be a hyper link that will use Skype to call the number.

1-800-466-4411 This is the number to Google’s FREE 411 phone service.

You will get a security warning in Firefox asking if its ok for Fire fox to allow Skype to dial out (this is normal).