Customize Dashboard Config

[gnumpi]

We aim to provide optional firmware configurations that can be enabled by simply uncommenting import lines in the YAML configuration displayed in the ESPHome dashboard.

Currently, the dashboard_import option import_full_config is not utilized. As a result, the YAML configuration file displayed in the dashboard is generated dynamically and cannot be modified by us to include the commented import lines.

However, if we provide our own dashboard configuration file and enable it by setting import_full_config, we lose the dashboard features of automatically generating an encryption key for the HA API connection and the optional use of the dashboard Wi-Fi settings, if they are configured.

[gnumpi]

As a long-term solution, I suggest creating an ESPHome pull request (PR) to enable the missing encryption key and Wi-Fi settings functionality, even when the import_full_config setting is enabled.

Even if this PR gets accepted without significant delay, we still cannot assume that the user is running the latest version of the ESPHome dashboard anytime soon, can we?

For now, we must decide between the trade-offs of requiring users to manually add the import lines or having them manually adjust the encryption and Wi-Fi settings. The second option could also be removing the encryption and local Wi-Fi settings entirely from our dashboard configuration file, defaulting to the settings already used by the flashed firmware (no encryption and using Wi-Fi credentials set via Improv).

[gnumpi]

Decision:

Introduce a dashboard configuration file that is loaded as-is by the ESPHome dashboard. The configuration will allow users to:

• Enable optional components by uncommenting the relevant import statements.
• Enable API encryption by manually setting the encryption key.
• Choose to use the Wi-Fi credentials stored in the dashboard by uncommenting the corresponding lines.