Odoo Development Cookbook Build effective applications by applying Odoo development best practices Holger Brunn Alexandre Fayolle Daniel Reis BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI Odoo Development Cookbook Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: April 2016 Production reference: 1260416 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK. ISBN 978-1-78588-364-4 www.packtpub.com FM-2 Credits Authors Project Coordinator Holger Brunn Kinjal Bari Alexandre Fayolle Daniel Reis Proofreader Safis Editing Reviewers Guewen Baconnier Indexer Monica Ajmera Mehta Stefan Rijnhart Production Coordinator Acquisition Editor Arvindkumar Gupta Manish Nainani Cover Work Content Development Editor Arvindkumar Gupta Mehvash Fatima Technical Editors Menza Mathew Deepti Tuscano Copy Editors Merilyn Pereira Alpha Singh FM-3 About the Authors Holger Brunn has been a fervent open source advocate since he came in to contact with the open source market sometime in the nineties. With an academic background in philosophy and sociology, he turned his interest to generalized logic, which proves helpful in many aspects of his IT work. Turning into a professional programmer was a side effect of his hobbyist interest, combined with a part-time job with a very open-minded mentor to whom he owes a lot of gratitude. He has programmed for ERP and similar systems in different positions since 2001. For the last eight years, he has dedicated his time to TinyERP, which became OpenERP and evolved into Odoo. Currently, he works at Therp BV in the Netherlands as a developer and is an active member of the Odoo Community Association (OCA). He's most interested in fundamental work on technical modules, but also enjoys contributing to other projects, with a focus on UI and website widgets, CRM, and knowledge management. Alexandre Fayolle started working with Linux and free software in the mid 1990s and quickly became interested in the Python programming language. Between 1999 and 2012, he helped manage Logilab, a company he cofounded, he specialized in Python development, and had the opportunity to work on projects for large companies such as EDF, Arcelor-Mittal, and GdF Suez (now Engie) using the Cubicweb framework. He also tackled fun projects involving machine learning, natural language processing, and multi-agent systems. In 2012, he joined Camptocamp to share his expertise on Python, PostgreSQL, and Linux with the team implementing Odoo (OpenERP at the time). He currently manages projects for Camptocamp and is strongly involved in the Odoo Community Association. In his spare time, he likes to play the vibraphone in a jazz quartet, but has recently been known for writing a book about Odoo, which he hopes you'll enjoy. FM-4 Daniel Reis has been working in the IT industry for over 15 years in developer, consultant, and management roles. Most of this work was at the Capgemini multinational consultancy firm, implementing proprietary business solutions for reference companies in a variety of sectors, such as industry, telecommunications, and banking. Daniel has a BSc in applied mathematics and a master's in business administration from the ISCTE Business School. He's worked with Odoo solutions (formerly OpenERP) since 2010, and he is an active contributor in the Odoo community association projects. He has been a speaker at the Open Days annual conference and other open source events. He is the author of the first Odoo development book: Odoo Development Essentials, also by Packt Publishing. He currently works at Securitas, the global security services company, where he has introduced Python, Odoo, and other open source solutions into the company's IT applications portfolio. I thank my wife, Maria José, for all the support and patience that made this book possible. FM-5 About the Reviewers Guewen Baconnier is a discrete guy who does not enjoy being put forward. He works at Camptocamp where he's been a TinyERP programmer before moving to OpenERP and now Odoo. He is a free software enthusiast and an active member of the Odoo Community Association (OCA), where his responsibilities involve, among others, being the lead developer of the OCA Connector Framework. Guewen also loves books so should you come across him, there is a good chance he may have his nose in one, either reading a technical book to keep up with his boundless curiosity and hunger to learn, or reading a novel to journey in some fictional universe, or whatever good read fell into his hands. He likes to hike in the countryside with his beloved wife. He is also the happy father of two nice kids, with whom he enjoys spending time, strolling, going to the library, reading books, and playing Kerbal Space Program. I would like to thank my wife and kids for supporting my tiredness on the morrows of long evenings of reviewing. And I would like to thank Alexandre Fayolle who helped me shape this short biography. Finally, thanks to my colleagues and to all contributors of the OCA from whom I learn every day. Stefan Rijnhart is a life-long open source advocate and has been a full time Odoo consultant and developer since 2010. He enjoys collaborating in the Odoo Community Association (OCA), which he finds to be mutually beneficial to his customers' projects. In the OCA, Stefan played a key role in the creation of the OpenUpgrade migration project for Odoo and in the Odoo Community Backports project (OCB). Offline, you can find him riding a carrier bicycle through the streets of Amsterdam with his son on the front seat, or playing music with his band. Get in touch with Stefan at http://opener.amsterdam. FM-6 www.PacktPub.com eBooks, discount offers, and more Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version atwww.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. 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Why subscribe? f Fully searchable across every book published by Packt f Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content f On demand and accessible via a web browser FM-7 Table of Contents Preface vii Chapter 1: Installing the Odoo Development Environment 1 Introduction 1 Easy installation of Odoo from source 2 Managing Odoo environments using the start command 9 Managing Odoo server databases 10 Storing the instance configuration in a file 19 Activating the Odoo developer tools 22 Updating Odoo from source 25 Chapter 2: Managing Odoo Server Instances 29 Introduction 29 Configuring the addons path 30 Updating the addon modules list 31 Standardizing your instance directory layout 33 Installing and upgrading local addon modules 36 Installing addon modules from GitHub 40 Applying changes to addons 42 Applying and trying proposed pull requests 43 Chapter 3: Creating Odoo Modules 47 Introduction 47 Creating and installing a new addon module 48 Completing the addon module manifest 49 Organizing the addon module file structure 52 Adding models 55 Adding Menu Items and Views 57 Using scaffold to create a module 61 i Table of Contents Chapter 4: Application Models 63 Introduction 63 Defining the Model representation and order 64 Adding data fields to a model 66 Using a float field with configurable precision 71 Adding a monetary field to a Model 73 Adding relational fields to a Model 74 Adding a hierarchy to a Model 78 Adding constraint validations to a Model 80 Adding computed fields to a Model 82 Exposing Related fields stored in other models 85 Adding dynamic relations using Reference fields 86 Adding features to a Model using inheritance 87 Using Abstract Models for reusable Model features 89 Using Delegation inheritance to copy features to another Model 91 Chapter 5: Basic Server Side Development 95 Introduction 95 Defining model methods and use the API decorators 96 Reporting errors to the user 99 Obtaining an empty recordset for a different model 101 Creating new records 102 Updating values of recordset records 104 Searching for records 107 Combining recordsets 109 Filtering recordsets 110 Traversing recordset relations 112 Extending the business logic defined in a Model 114 Extending write() and create() 117 Customizing how records are searched