Easing setup of SSID and Password

Question

zacware OP

Created Oct ’15

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Views 2.4k

Participants 3

I'm helping write an app to interface with custom hardware.

The device will startup with it's own Ad-Hoc wifi network, but then the user must migrate it to their own wifi network.

From what i've read so far, it seems the only way to do this is to have the user manually type the SSID and password and send it down to the device.

From a user friendliness standpoint, this if of course, less than ideal.

Is there any way to ease this process up a bit. Or am I correct that there is no way to capture the current SSID or any other type of assistance I can provide the user to make it easier to migrate the device to their network?

The company I'm helping is fairly large, so if getting this thing MFI certifiied or some other such similar certification would allow us access to some easier setup option I might be able to get them to consider going through that process.....

"SSID? What's that? ........Password? ......Larry!!!....... Do we have a password for our wifi box? Larry!!!!"

Boost

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’15

The device will startup with it's own Ad-Hoc wifi network, but then the user must migrate it to their own wifi network.

The best way to do this is to implement Wireless Accessory Configuration (WAC), which is part of MFi. To learn more, watch:

WWDC 2013 Session 700 Designing Accessories for iOS and OS X — This introduced WAC with the focus being on the Settings app.
WWDC 2014 Session 701 Designing Accessories for iOS and OS X — This discusses enhancements we made in iOS 8 that allow developers to configure their WAC accessory from within their app.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn "The Eskimo!"
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

1

Answer 2

nirke OP

Apr ’16

Hey Eskimo,

Just saw the two lectures you recommended, it helps to get the picture, thanks!

We are currently developing a custom accessory and want to use it as a MFi / HomeKit device.

Our device is currently working on WiFi and we would like to find the easiest method to teach it the WiFi credentials creating the best user experience we can get with the MFi program.

We understood from the session you recommended (Session 700 WWDC 2013) how it should look on the iOS side but we would like to understand what are the demands from the custom hardware side in order to support Apple's WAC (Things such as memory constrains, support for non-os / os systems etc).

Where can we find further information about it?

We would appreciate your help,

Thanks and have a good day,

Nir

0