[RFC] Expose Tessel network utilities

[HipsterBrown]

At the moment, the quickest way to connect to a wifi network or start an access point is through the command line interface, t2-cli. It would be cool to expose this functionality through the tessel module for controlling network operations programatically.

Example:

var tessel = require('tessel');

// connects to wifi network called 'MyNetwork' and returns wifi object for use later
// tessel.network.ap could work the same way
var myNetwork = tessel.network.wifi({
  ssid: 'MyNetwork',
  password: 'SecurePassword123',
  security: 'psk2'
});

// turns off the connection to 'MyNetwork'
myNetwork.off();

// turns on connection to 'MyNetwork'
myNetwork.on();

Use Case:
If a developer wanted to create an access point based on user interaction, like pressing the button on the Tessel. Then a user could toggle that access point every time they press the button.

When mesh networking is available, that could also be exposed through this tessel.network object/class for dynamically creating mesh nodes and connections.

Any feedback is helpful. I can work on a PR if there is a general approval.

[rwaldron]

What happens if tessel.network.wifi is called more than once?

[HipsterBrown]

Hmmm I suppose it would connect to that new network and return a new wifi object, then invalidate any old wifi objects. I think having that returned object to pass around will be easier to understand, as opposed to:

var tessel = require('tessel')

tessel.network.wifi(creds); // automatically connects to this network
tessel.network.wifi.off(); // turns the last connected network off.

[johnnyman727]

@HipsterBrown what do you think of the WiFi API we have for Tessel 1? It doesn't have any access point option so we'd have to add that.

[HipsterBrown]

@johnnyman727 I was not aware of that API but it looks great to me, especially since it existed with Tessel 1 it would be nice to continue support within the tessel module. I think the same API should work for access points as well.

[johnnyman727]

👍 Yeah, I forgot about this API so I'm glad you brought it up.

[rwaldron]

I also forgot about that API—thanks for the refresher @johnnyman727

[johnnyman727]

@HipsterBrown do you think this will be ready for our next milestone tomorrow? Are you blocked by anything?

[HipsterBrown]

@johnnyman727 It won't be ready tomorrow. Not blocked by anything, just haven't had a bunch of time to work on it. I can have it by the next release though now that I have some feedback on the initial WIP API.

[johnnyman727]

👍 Will move it to the next milestone.