Deep technical guides for Odoo module development - ORM, QWeb, OWL, view inheritance, and more.
Odoo views support three visibility mechanisms: security groups (render the field or not), domain filters (filter records displayed), and dynamic attrs (conditionally show/hide elements based on field values). Each controls a different layer of what users see.
Read articleThree layers of profiling cover 95% of Odoo performance problems: SQL query plans, Python execution time, and Odoo's own built-in profiler. Here is how to use all three and what each one finds.
Read articlegit-aggregator lets you declare all your Odoo addon sources - OCA, private repos, forks - in a single YAML file and reproduce the exact stack on any machine. Here is how to set it up and integrate it into CI.
Read articleOdoo API keys allow external systems to authenticate via JSON-RPC without storing a user password. This guide covers key generation, scoping, rotation, and the difference between API key auth and session-based auth.
Read articleOdoo's QWeb report engine lets you produce branded PDF documents - invoices, delivery orders, custom certificates - from any model. This guide covers report actions, QWeb template syntax, paper formats, and the common gotchas with wkhtmltopdf rendering.
Read articleOdoo has three distinct inheritance mechanisms that look similar but behave completely differently. Get any of them wrong and you end up with duplicate tables, missing fields, or broken views. This guide disambiguates all three with concrete examples.
Read articleServer actions and automated actions let you execute Python code, send emails, and mutate records in response to business events - without deploying a custom module. This guide covers the ir.actions.server model, all action types, and how base_automation wires triggers to actions.
Read articleOdoo ships several reusable abstract models that add chatter, activity tracking, and other cross-cutting features to any custom model. Understanding when to inherit from models.AbstractModel versus models.Model, and how mixins compose, saves hours of debugging and keeps your module architecture clean.
Read articleOdoo ships several built-in abstract models that add rich behavior to any model with a single _inherit line: chatter threads, activity scheduling, website publication, and image handling. This guide covers what each mixin provides, how to combine them, and how to build your own reusable abstract models.
Read articleOdoo security has two distinct layers: model-level access rights (who can read/write/create/unlink a model) and record-level rules (which specific records a user can see). Understanding both is essential for building multi-tenant features, restricting sensitive data, and debugging "you do not have access" errors.
Read articleDomains are how Odoo expresses search filters - in security rules, actions, onchange triggers, and code. Getting the syntax wrong produces silent empty results or Python errors. This reference covers every operator, the AND/OR/NOT combinators, and performance pitfalls.
Read articleOdoo's ir.cron model is the right way to schedule recurring background work - but it has non-obvious rules around error handling, multi-company execution, and method binding. This guide covers everything you need to know to use it correctly in custom modules.
Read articleOdoo controllers let you add custom HTTP routes to the Odoo web server - public pages, JSON APIs, file downloads, and webhook receivers. This guide covers route definition, authentication modes, accessing the ORM from a controller, CSRF handling, and the gotchas that cause 403 errors or broken sessions.
Read articleOWL (Odoo Web Library) replaced the legacy Widget system as the JavaScript frontend framework starting in Odoo 14. This guide covers the component lifecycle, props and state, template syntax, event handling, service injection, and the key differences from the old Widget pattern.
Read articleQWeb is the XML template engine behind every Odoo PDF report. This guide covers the minimum structure for a working report action, iterating over records, formatting fields, applying paper sizes, and the five gotchas that produce blank or broken output.
Read articleWizards are Odoo's pattern for collecting user input before performing an action - confirm a delivery, validate a transfer, pick a date for a report. TransientModel is the backbone, but the details (action binding, multi-step flows, default values, cleanup) catch developers off-guard. This guide covers the full pattern.
Read articleUse the OpenUpgrade toolchain to write reliable migration scripts for custom Odoo modules - pre/post hooks, rename_columns, delete_model, module_installed checks, and data fixup patterns for each major version jump.
Read articleCall third-party REST APIs directly from Odoo Python models using the requests library - handle authentication headers, JSON parsing, error handling, timeout configuration, and safe retry patterns without blocking the main thread.
Read articleWrite reliable data migration scripts for Odoo module upgrades - use the migrations/ folder with pre and post hooks, raw SQL for structural changes, ORM for data fixup, and openupgradelib helpers to rename fields, move data, and recompute stored fields.
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