Does Particle.io have a solution for end customers handling wifi credentials

I’m sure there has been thought put into this from many before me.

What are people’s strategies in handling wifi credentials at the end user level? So, the scenario is this: Customer receives shiny new widgetA which contains a photon inside. Now the customer must connect that widget to the wifi network. AND, must be able to change the credentials in the event of a new router, etc.

Are people using SoftAP to do this? And does that require that a widget product is accompanied by an app for the SoftAP functionality? Or is there some implementation that is more off the shelf or provided by Particle.io?

I’m rather surprised that Particle.io doesn’t have more documentation on this subject, as its going to an issue for most if not all IoT end consumer devices being sold with a photon inside.

What more documentation would you like, SoftAP is documented with a fully working code example you can drop straight into your app, with that you simply connect to the AP on the photon and load a page in your browser. There is also the Particle App which is open source so you can easily rebrand and customise it to your requirements if needed. And there is https://setup.particle.io/ thats does much the same as the app but all from a browser and a local page.

All the functions for setting up WiFi are documented so you can also make up your own ways of setting them too, they could be IR, Bluetooth, Serial, Keypad, NFC etc… (setup over Serial already exists in the firmware, you would just need to provide a nice way for your customer to physically connect to it)

To be honest the only thing missing is WPS, which would be nice to have for consumer products but is irrelevant for industrial use as Ubiquiti etc don’t support it (with good reason).

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Thanks Viscacha for the reply. That helps in at least knowing what other people are thinking. And it sounds like there’s a few different options out there.

I think what would be helpful for newbs like myself would be for Particle.io to add another page in the Guide section under ‘How to Build a Project’ specifically in the process of handling wifi for the end user. The SoftAP of the API does have good documentation, but wouldn’t be an obvious place for many people to find it, and also since its only one of a few different options to solve the problem.