UnifiProtect: Support API Key based authentication

[rellerton]

Integration name

unifiprotect

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/unifiprotect

Describe the enhancement

Currently, the integration requires a local admin account directly on the UnifiOS device - the proposed change would be to allow the Unifi Protect integration to support API key based authentication with the same underlying API. Newer versions of Protect and UnifiOS support generation of an API key for protect using the GUI.

Use cases

Unifi is moving more towards cloud based authentication. Recently, with the addition of "Organizations" in their cloud UI I have discovered that creating an "Organization" to use some of the newer cloud based features removes the ability to access the local account management completely and disables local admin accounts, effectively breaking this integration. Unifi has been trending towards exclusively cloud based authentication for some time and I suspect that it won't be much longer before the local admin accounts are removed entirely.

Anything else?

No response

[github-actions[bot]]

🏷️ I've automatically added the integration: unifiprotect label to help categorize this feature request.

[RaHehl]

The integration is currently using private APIs and is gradually being migrated to the new public API as soon as it provides the necessary features to replace a function. This process will take quite some time. Once it is completed, the API key will automatically become the authentication method in use.

[twcau]

Support this in full, with the addition that this is extended to also cover the Local Network API endpoint as well.

By moving authentication and connectivity over to supporting Local Network API (preferred) and Site Manager API (additionally), it will give more HA users the ability to integrate their UniFi environments, and give more reliable authentication and performance regardless of how the device is managed and (with local api) keep the information contained within their homes if they don't wish to use Ubiquiti's Site Management platform in the cloud.

Additional relevant material

• Example HACS integration where this outcome is being achieved: https://github.com/wittypluck/ha-unifi-network