ORM API - Odoo 11.0

Recordsets

New in version 8.0: This page documents the New API added in Odoo 8.0 which should be the primary development API going forward. It also provides information about porting from or bridging with the “old API” of versions 7 and earlier, but does not explicitly document that API. See the old documentation for that.

Interaction with models and records is performed through recordsets, a sorted set of records of the same model.

Methods defined on a model are executed on a recordset, and their self is a recordset:

class AModel(models.Model):
    _name = 'a.model'
    def a_method(self):
        # self can be anywhere between 0 records and all records in the
        # database
        self.do_operation()

Iterating on a recordset will yield new sets of a single record (“singletons”), much like iterating on a Python string yields strings of a single characters:

def do_operation(self):
    print self # => a.model(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
    for record in self:
        print record # => a.model(1), then a.model(2), then a.model(3), ...

Field access

Recordsets provide an “Active Record” interface: model fields can be read and written directly from the record as attributes, but only on singletons (single-record recordsets). Field values can also be accessed like dict items, which is more elegant and safer than getattr() for dynamic field names. Setting a field’s value triggers an update to the database:

>>> record.name
Example Name
>>> record.company_id.name
Company Name
>>> record.name = "Bob"
>>> field = "name"
>>> record[field]
Bob

Trying to read or write a field on multiple records will raise an error.

Accessing a relational field (Many2one, One2many, Many2many) always returns a recordset, empty if the field is not set.

Record cache and prefetching

Odoo maintains a cache for the fields of the records, so that not every field access issues a database request, which would be terrible for performance. The following example queries the database only for the first statement:

record.name             # first access reads value from database
record.name             # second access gets value from cache

To avoid reading one field on one record at a time, Odoo prefetches records and fields following some heuristics to get good performance. Once a field must be read on a given record, the ORM actually reads that field on a larger recordset, and stores the returned values in cache for later use. The prefetched recordset is usually the recordset from which the record comes by iteration. Moreover, all simple stored fields (boolean, integer, float, char, text, date, datetime, selection, many2one) are fetched altogether; they correspond to the columns of the model’s table, and are fetched efficiently in the same query.

Consider the following example, where partners is a recordset of 1000 records. Without prefetching, the loop would make 2000 queries to the database. With prefetching, only one query is made:

for partner in partners:
    print partner.name          # first pass prefetches 'name' and 'lang'
                                # (and other fields) on all 'partners'
    print partner.lang

The prefetching also works on secondary records: when relational fields are read, their values (which are records) are subscribed for future prefetching. Accessing one of those secondary records prefetches all secondary records from the same model. This makes the following example generate only two queries, one for partners and one for countries:

countries = set()
for partner in partners:
    country = partner.country_id        # first pass prefetches all partners
    countries.add(country.name)         # first pass prefetches all countries

Set operations

Recordsets are immutable, but sets of the same model can be combined using various set operations, returning new recordsets. Set operations do not preserve order.

  • record in set returns whether record (which must be a 1-element recordset) is present in set. record not in set is the inverse operation
  • set1 <= set2 and set1 < set2 return whether set1 is a subset of set2 (resp. strict)
  • set1 >= set2 and set1 > set2 return whether set1 is a superset of set2 (resp. strict)
  • set1 | set2 returns the union of the two recordsets, a new recordset containing all records present in either source
  • set1 & set2 returns the intersection of two recordsets, a new recordset containing only records present in both sources
  • set1 - set2 returns a new recordset containing only records of set1 which are not in set2

Other recordset operations

Recordsets are iterable so the usual Python tools are available for transformation (map(), sorted(), ifilter(), …) however these return either a list or an iterator, removing the ability to call methods on their result, or to use set operations.

Recordsets therefore provide these operations returning recordsets themselves (when possible):

filtered()

returns a recordset containing only records satisfying the provided predicate function. The predicate can also be a string to filter by a field being true or false:

# only keep records whose company is the current user's
records.filtered(lambda r: r.company_id == user.company_id)

# only keep records whose partner is a company
records.filtered("partner_id.is_company")
sorted()

returns a recordset sorted by the provided key function. If no key is provided, use the model’s default sort order:

# sort records by name
records.sorted(key=lambda r: r.name)
mapped()

applies the provided function to each record in the recordset, returns a recordset if the results are recordsets:

# returns a list of summing two fields for each record in the set
records.mapped(lambda r: r.field1 + r.field2)

The provided function can be a string to get field values:

# returns a list of names
records.mapped('name')

# returns a recordset of partners
record.mapped('partner_id')

# returns the union of all partner banks, with duplicates removed
record.mapped('partner_id.bank_ids')

Environment

The Environment stores various contextual data used by the ORM: the database cursor (for database queries), the current user (for access rights checking) and the current context (storing arbitrary metadata). The environment also stores caches.

All recordsets have an environment, which is immutable, can be accessed using env and gives access to the current user (user), the cursor (cr) or the context (context):

>>> records.env
<Environment object ...>
>>> records.env.user
res.user(3)
>>> records.env.cr
<Cursor object ...)

When creating a recordset from an other recordset, the environment is inherited. The environment can be used to get an empty recordset in an other model, and query that model:

>>> self.env['res.partner']
res.partner
>>> self.env['res.partner'].search([['is_company', '=', True], ['customer', '=', True]])
res.partner(7, 18, 12, 14, 17, 19, 8, 31, 26, 16, 13, 20, 30, 22, 29, 15, 23, 28, 74)

Altering the environment

The environment can be customized from a recordset. This returns a new version of the recordset using the altered environment.

sudo()

creates a new environment with the provided user set, uses the administrator if none is provided (to bypass access rights/rules in safe contexts), returns a copy of the recordset it is called on using the new environment:

# create partner object as administrator
env['res.partner'].sudo().create({'name': "A Partner"})

# list partners visible by the "public" user
public = env.ref('base.public_user')
env['res.partner'].sudo(public).search([])
with_context()
  1. can take a single positional parameter, which replaces the current environment’s context
  2. can take any number of parameters by keyword, which are added to either the current environment’s context or the context set during step 1
# look for partner, or create one with specified timezone if none is
# found
env['res.partner'].with_context(tz=a_tz).find_or_create(email_address)
with_env()
replaces the existing environment entirely

Common ORM methods

search()

Takes a search domain, returns a recordset of matching records. Can return a subset of matching records (offset and limit parameters) and be ordered (order parameter):

>>> # searches the current model
>>> self.search([('is_company', '=', True), ('customer', '=', True)])
res.partner(7, 18, 12, 14, 17, 19, 8, 31, 26, 16, 13, 20, 30, 22, 29, 15, 23, 28, 74)
>>> self.search([('is_company', '=', True)], limit=1).name
'Agrolait'
create()

Takes a number of field values, and returns a recordset containing the record created:

>>> self.create({'name': "New Name"})
res.partner(78)
write()

Takes a number of field values, writes them to all the records in its recordset. Does not return anything:

self.write({'name': "Newer Name"})
browse()

Takes a database id or a list of ids and returns a recordset, useful when record ids are obtained from outside Odoo (e.g. round-trip through external system) or when calling methods in the old API:

>>> self.browse([7, 18, 12])
res.partner(7, 18, 12)
exists()

Returns a new recordset containing only the records which exist in the database. Can be used to check whether a record (e.g. obtained externally) still exists:

if not record.exists():
    raise Exception("The record has been deleted")

or after calling a method which could have removed some records:

records.may_remove_some()
# only keep records which were not deleted
records = records.exists()
ref()

Environment method returning the record matching a provided external id:

>>> env.ref('base.group_public')
res.groups(2)
ensure_one()

checks that the recordset is a singleton (only contains a single record), raises an error otherwise:

records.ensure_one()
# is equivalent to but clearer than:
assert len(records) == 1, "Expected singleton"

Creating Models

Model fields are defined as attributes on the model itself:

from odoo import models, fields
class AModel(models.Model):
    _name = 'a.model.name'

    field1 = fields.Char()

By default, the field’s label (user-visible name) is a capitalized version of the field name, this can be overridden with the string parameter:

field2 = fields.Integer(string="an other field")

For the various field types and parameters, see the fields reference.

Default values are defined as parameters on fields, either a value:

a_field = fields.Char(default="a value")

or a function called to compute the default value, which should return that value:

def compute_default_value(self):
    return self.get_value()
a_field = fields.Char(default=compute_default_value)

Computed fields

Fields can be computed (instead of read straight from the database) using the compute parameter. It must assign the computed value to the field. If it uses the values of other fields, it should specify those fields using depends():

from odoo import api
total = fields.Float(compute='_compute_total')

@api.depends('value', 'tax')
def _compute_total(self):
    for record in self:
        record.total = record.value + record.value * record.tax

  • dependencies can be dotted paths when using sub-fields:

    @api.depends('line_ids.value')
def _compute_total(self):
    for record in self:
        record.total = sum(line.value for line in record.line_ids)
  • computed fields are not stored by default, they are computed and returned when requested. Setting store=True will store them in the database and automatically enable searching

  • searching on a computed field can also be enabled by setting the search parameter. The value is a method name returning a Domains:

    upper_name = field.Char(compute='_compute_upper', search='_search_upper')

def _search_upper(self, operator, value):
    if operator == 'like':
        operator = 'ilike'
    return [('name', operator, value)]

  • to allow setting values on a computed field, use the inverse parameter. It is the name of a function reversing the computation and setting the relevant fields:

    document = fields.Char(compute='_get_document', inverse='_set_document')

def _get_document(self):
    for record in self:
        with open(record.get_document_path) as f:
            record.document = f.read()
def _set_document(self):
    for record in self:
        if not record.document: continue
        with open(record.get_document_path()) as f:
            f.write(record.document)

  • multiple fields can be computed at the same time by the same method, just use the same method on all fields and set all of them:

    discount_value = fields.Float(compute='_apply_discount')
total = fields.Float(compute='_apply_discount')

@depends('value', 'discount')
def _apply_discount(self):
    for record in self:
        # compute actual discount from discount percentage
        discount = record.value * record.discount
        record.discount_value = discount
        record.total = record.value - discount

onchange: updating UI on the fly

When a user changes a field’s value in a form (but hasn’t saved the form yet), it can be useful to automatically update other fields based on that value e.g. updating a final total when the tax is changed or a new invoice line is added.

  • computed fields are automatically checked and recomputed, they do not need an onchange

  • for non-computed fields, the onchange() decorator is used to provide new field values:

    @api.onchange('field1', 'field2') # if these fields are changed, call method
def check_change(self):
    if self.field1 < self.field2:
        self.field3 = True

    the changes performed during the method are then sent to the client program and become visible to the user

  • Both computed fields and new-API onchanges are automatically called by the client without having to add them in views

  • It is possible to suppress the trigger from a specific field by adding on_change="0" in a view:

    <field name="name" on_change="0"/>

    will not trigger any interface update when the field is edited by the user, even if there are function fields or explicit onchange depending on that field.

Low-level SQL

The cr attribute on environments is the cursor for the current database transaction and allows executing SQL directly, either for queries which are difficult to express using the ORM (e.g. complex joins) or for performance reasons:

self.env.cr.execute("some_sql", param1, param2, param3)

Because models use the same cursor and the Environment holds various caches, these caches must be invalidated when altering the database in raw SQL, or further uses of models may become incoherent. It is necessary to clear caches when using CREATE, UPDATE or DELETE in SQL, but not SELECT (which simply reads the database).

Clearing caches can be performed using the invalidate_cache() method of the BaseModel object.

Compatibility between new API and old API

Odoo is currently transitioning from an older (less regular) API, it can be necessary to manually bridge from one to the other manually:

  • RPC layers (both XML-RPC and JSON-RPC) are expressed in terms of the old API, methods expressed purely in the new API are not available over RPC
  • overridable methods may be called from older pieces of code still written in the old API style

The big differences between the old and new APIs are:

  • values of the Environment (cursor, user id and context) are passed explicitly to methods instead
  • record data (ids) are passed explicitly to methods, and possibly not passed at all
  • methods tend to work on lists of ids instead of recordsets

By default, methods are assumed to use the new API style and are not callable from the old API style.

Two decorators can expose a new-style method to the old API:

model()

the method is exposed as not using ids, its recordset will generally be empty. Its “old API” signature is cr, uid, *arguments, context:

@api.model
def some_method(self, a_value):
    pass
# can be called as
old_style_model.some_method(cr, uid, a_value, context=context)
multi()

the method is exposed as taking a list of ids (possibly empty), its “old API” signature is cr, uid, ids, *arguments, context:

@api.multi
def some_method(self, a_value):
    pass
# can be called as
old_style_model.some_method(cr, uid, [id1, id2], a_value, context=context)

Because new-style APIs tend to return recordsets and old-style APIs tend to return lists of ids, there is also a decorator managing this:

returns()

the function is assumed to return a recordset, the first parameter should be the name of the recordset’s model or self (for the current model).

No effect if the method is called in new API style, but transforms the recordset into a list of ids when called from the old API style:

>>> @api.multi
... @api.returns('self')
... def some_method(self):
...     return self
>>> new_style_model = env['a.model'].browse(1, 2, 3)
>>> new_style_model.some_method()
a.model(1, 2, 3)
>>> old_style_model = pool['a.model']
>>> old_style_model.some_method(cr, uid, [1, 2, 3], context=context)
[1, 2, 3]

Model Reference

class odoo.models.Model(pool, cr)[source]

Main super-class for regular database-persisted Odoo models.

Odoo models are created by inheriting from this class:

class user(Model):
    ...

The system will later instantiate the class once per database (on which the class’ module is installed).

Structural attributes

_name

business object name, in dot-notation (in module namespace)

_rec_name

Alternative field to use as name, used by osv’s name_get() (default: 'name')

_inherit
  • If _name is set, names of parent models to inherit from. Can be a str if inheriting from a single parent
  • If _name is unset, name of a single model to extend in-place

See Inheritance and extension.

_order

Ordering field when searching without an ordering specified (default: 'id')

Type
str
_auto

Whether a database table should be created (default: True)

If set to False, override init() to create the database table

_table

Name of the table backing the model created when _auto, automatically generated by default.

_inherits

dictionary mapping the _name of the parent business objects to the names of the corresponding foreign key fields to use:

_inherits = {
    'a.model': 'a_field_id',
    'b.model': 'b_field_id'
}

implements composition-based inheritance: the new model exposes all the fields of the _inherits-ed model but stores none of them: the values themselves remain stored on the linked record.

_constraints

list of (constraint_function, message, fields) defining Python constraints. The fields list is indicative

Deprecated since version 8.0: use constrains()

_sql_constraints

list of (name, sql_definition, message) triples defining SQL constraints to execute when generating the backing table

_parent_store

Alongside parent_left and parent_right, sets up a nested set to enable fast hierarchical queries on the records of the current model (default: False)

Type
bool

CRUD

create(vals) → record[source]

Creates a new record for the model.

The new record is initialized using the values from vals and if necessary those from default_get().

Parameters
vals (dict) –

values for the model’s fields, as a dictionary:

{'field_name': field_value, ...}

see write() for details

Returns
new record created
Raises
  • AccessError –
    • if user has no create rights on the requested object
    • if user tries to bypass access rules for create on the requested object
  • ValidateError – if user tries to enter invalid value for a field that is not in selection
  • UserError – if a loop would be created in a hierarchy of objects a result of the operation (such as setting an object as its own parent)
browse([ids]) → records[source]

Returns a recordset for the ids provided as parameter in the current environment.

Can take no ids, a single id or a sequence of ids.

Deletes the records of the current set

Raises
  • AccessError –
    • if user has no unlink rights on the requested object
    • if user tries to bypass access rules for unlink on the requested object
  • UserError – if the record is default property for other records
write(vals)[source]

Updates all records in the current set with the provided values.

Parameters
vals (dict) –

fields to update and the value to set on them e.g:

{'foo': 1, 'bar': "Qux"}

will set the field foo to 1 and the field bar to "Qux" if those are valid (otherwise it will trigger an error).

Raises
  • AccessError –
    • if user has no write rights on the requested object
    • if user tries to bypass access rules for write on the requested object
  • ValidateError – if user tries to enter invalid value for a field that is not in selection
  • UserError – if a loop would be created in a hierarchy of objects a result of the operation (such as setting an object as its own parent)
  • For numeric fields (Integer, Float) the value should be of the corresponding type
  • For Boolean, the value should be a bool
  • For Selection, the value should match the selection values (generally str, sometimes int)
  • For Many2one, the value should be the database identifier of the record to set

  • Other non-relational fields use a string for value

  • One2many and Many2many use a special “commands” format to manipulate the set of records stored in/associated with the field.

    This format is a list of triplets executed sequentially, where each triplet is a command to execute on the set of records. Not all commands apply in all situations. Possible commands are:

    (0, _, values)
    adds a new record created from the provided value dict.
    (1, id, values)
    updates an existing record of id id with the values in values. Can not be used in create().
    (2, id, _)
    removes the record of id id from the set, then deletes it (from the database). Can not be used in create().
    (3, id, _)
    removes the record of id id from the set, but does not delete it. Can not be used on One2many. Can not be used in create().
    (4, id, _)
    adds an existing record of id id to the set. Can not be used on One2many.
    (5, _, _)
    removes all records from the set, equivalent to using the command 3 on every record explicitly. Can not be used on One2many. Can not be used in create().
    (6, _, ids)
    replaces all existing records in the set by the ids list, equivalent to using the command 5 followed by a command 4 for each id in ids.
read([fields])[source]

Reads the requested fields for the records in self, low-level/RPC method. In Python code, prefer browse().

Parameters
fields – list of field names to return (default is all fields)
Returns
a list of dictionaries mapping field names to their values, with one dictionary per record
Raises
AccessError – if user has no read rights on some of the given records
read_group(domain, fields, groupby, offset=0, limit=None, orderby=False, lazy=True)[source]

Get the list of records in list view grouped by the given groupby fields

Parameters
  • domain – list specifying search criteria [[‘field_name’, ‘operator’, ‘value’], …]
  • fields (list) – list of fields present in the list view specified on the object
  • groupby (list) – list of groupby descriptions by which the records will be grouped. A groupby description is either a field (then it will be grouped by that field) or a string ‘field:groupby_function’. Right now, the only functions supported are ‘day’, ‘week’, ‘month’, ‘quarter’ or ‘year’, and they only make sense for date/datetime fields.
  • offset (int) – optional number of records to skip
  • limit (int) – optional max number of records to return
  • orderby (list) – optional order by specification, for overriding the natural sort ordering of the groups, see also search() (supported only for many2one fields currently)
  • lazy (bool) – if true, the results are only grouped by the first groupby and the remaining groupbys are put in the __context key. If false, all the groupbys are done in one call.
Returns

list of dictionaries(one dictionary for each record) containing:

  • the values of fields grouped by the fields in groupby argument
  • __domain: list of tuples specifying the search criteria
  • __context: dictionary with argument like groupby
Return type
[{‘field_name_1’: value, ..]
Raises
AccessError –
  • if user has no read rights on the requested object
  • if user tries to bypass access rules for read on the requested object

Searching

search(args[, offset=0][, limit=None][, order=None][, count=False])[source]

Searches for records based on the args search domain.

Parameters
  • args – A search domain. Use an empty list to match all records.
  • offset (int) – number of results to ignore (default: none)
  • limit (int) – maximum number of records to return (default: all)
  • order (str) – sort string
  • count (bool) – if True, only counts and returns the number of matching records (default: False)
Returns
at most limit records matching the search criteria
Raises
AccessError –
  • if user tries to bypass access rules for read on the requested object.
search_count(args) → int[source]

Returns the number of records in the current model matching the provided domain.

Search for records that have a display name matching the given name pattern when compared with the given operator, while also matching the optional search domain (args).

This is used for example to provide suggestions based on a partial value for a relational field. Sometimes be seen as the inverse function of name_get(), but it is not guaranteed to be.

This method is equivalent to calling search() with a search domain based on display_name and then name_get() on the result of the search.

Parameters
  • name (str) – the name pattern to match
  • args (list) – optional search domain (see search() for syntax), specifying further restrictions
  • operator (str) – domain operator for matching name, such as 'like' or '='.
  • limit (int) – optional max number of records to return
Return type
list
Returns
list of pairs (id, text_repr) for all matching records.

Recordset operations

ids

List of actual record ids in this recordset (ignores placeholder ids for records to create)

ensure_one()[source]

Verifies that the current recorset holds a single record. Raises an exception otherwise.

exists() → records[source]

Returns the subset of records in self that exist, and marks deleted records as such in cache. It can be used as a test on records:

if record.exists():
    ...

By convention, new records are returned as existing.

filtered(func)[source]

Select the records in self such that func(rec) is true, and return them as a recordset.

Parameters
func – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names
sorted(key=None, reverse=False)[source]

Return the recordset self ordered by key.

Parameters
  • key – either a function of one argument that returns a comparison key for each record, or a field name, or None, in which case records are ordered according the default model’s order
  • reverse – if True, return the result in reverse order
mapped(func)[source]

Apply func on all records in self, and return the result as a list or a recordset (if func return recordsets). In the latter case, the order of the returned recordset is arbitrary.

Parameters
func – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names (string); any falsy value simply returns the recordset self

Environment swapping

sudo([user=SUPERUSER])[source]

Returns a new version of this recordset attached to the provided user.

By default this returns a SUPERUSER recordset, where access control and record rules are bypassed.

with_context([context][, **overrides]) → records[source]

Returns a new version of this recordset attached to an extended context.

The extended context is either the provided context in which overrides are merged or the current context in which overrides are merged e.g.:

# current context is {'key1': True}
r2 = records.with_context({}, key2=True)
# -> r2._context is {'key2': True}
r2 = records.with_context(key2=True)
# -> r2._context is {'key1': True, 'key2': True}
with_env(env)[source]

Returns a new version of this recordset attached to the provided environment

Fields and views querying

fields_get([fields][, attributes])[source]

Return the definition of each field.

The returned value is a dictionary (indiced by field name) of dictionaries. The _inherits’d fields are included. The string, help, and selection (if present) attributes are translated.

Parameters
  • allfields – list of fields to document, all if empty or not provided
  • attributes – list of description attributes to return for each field, all if empty or not provided
fields_view_get([view_id | view_type='form'])[source]

Get the detailed composition of the requested view like fields, model, view architecture

Parameters
  • view_id – id of the view or None
  • view_type – type of the view to return if view_id is None (‘form’, ‘tree’, …)
  • toolbar – true to include contextual actions
  • submenu – deprecated
Returns
dictionary describing the composition of the requested view (including inherited views and extensions)
Raises
  • AttributeError –
    • if the inherited view has unknown position to work with other than ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘inside’, ‘replace’
    • if some tag other than ‘position’ is found in parent view
  • Invalid ArchitectureError – if there is view type other than form, tree, calendar, search etc defined on the structure

Miscellaneous methods

default_get(fields) → default_values[source]

Return default values for the fields in fields_list. Default values are determined by the context, user defaults, and the model itself.

Parameters
fields_list – a list of field names
Returns
a dictionary mapping each field name to its corresponding default value, if it has one.
copy(default=None)[source]

Duplicate record self updating it with default values

Parameters
default (dict) – dictionary of field values to override in the original values of the copied record, e.g: {'field_name': overridden_value, ...}
Returns
new record
name_get() → [(id, name), ...][source]

Returns a textual representation for the records in self. By default this is the value of the display_name field.

Returns
list of pairs (id, text_repr) for each records
Return type
list(tuple)
name_create(name) → record[source]

Create a new record by calling create() with only one value provided: the display name of the new record.

The new record will be initialized with any default values applicable to this model, or provided through the context. The usual behavior of create() applies.

Parameters
name – display name of the record to create
Return type
tuple
Returns
the name_get() pair value of the created record

Automatic fields

id

Identifier field

_log_access

Whether log access fields (create_date, write_uid, …) should be generated (default: True)

create_date

Date at which the record was created

Type
Datetime
create_uid

Relational field to the user who created the record

Type
res.users
write_date

Date at which the record was last modified

Type
Datetime
write_uid

Relational field to the last user who modified the record

Type
res.users

Reserved field names

A few field names are reserved for pre-defined behaviors beyond that of automated fields. They should be defined on a model when the related behavior is desired:

name

default value for _rec_name, used to display records in context where a representative “naming” is necessary.

Type
Char
active

toggles the global visibility of the record, if active is set to False the record is invisible in most searches and listing

Type
Boolean
sequence

Alterable ordering criteria, allows drag-and-drop reordering of models in list views

Type
Integer
state

lifecycle stages of the object, used by the states attribute on fields

Type
Selection
parent_id

used to order records in a tree structure and enables the child_of operator in domains

Type
Many2one
parent_left

used with _parent_store, allows faster tree structure access

parent_right

see parent_left

Method decorators

This module provides the elements for managing two different API styles, namely the “traditional” and “record” styles.

In the “traditional” style, parameters like the database cursor, user id, context dictionary and record ids (usually denoted as cr, uid, context, ids) are passed explicitly to all methods. In the “record” style, those parameters are hidden into model instances, which gives it a more object-oriented feel.

For instance, the statements:

model = self.pool.get(MODEL)
ids = model.search(cr, uid, DOMAIN, context=context)
for rec in model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context=context):
    print rec.name
model.write(cr, uid, ids, VALUES, context=context)

may also be written as:

env = Environment(cr, uid, context) # cr, uid, context wrapped in env
model = env[MODEL]                  # retrieve an instance of MODEL
recs = model.search(DOMAIN)         # search returns a recordset
for rec in recs:                    # iterate over the records
    print rec.name
recs.write(VALUES)                  # update all records in recs

Methods written in the “traditional” style are automatically decorated, following some heuristics based on parameter names.

odoo.api.multi(method)[source]

Decorate a record-style method where self is a recordset. The method typically defines an operation on records. Such a method:

@api.multi
def method(self, args):
    ...

may be called in both record and traditional styles, like:

# recs = model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
recs.method(args)

model.method(cr, uid, ids, args, context=context)
odoo.api.model(method)[source]

Decorate a record-style method where self is a recordset, but its contents is not relevant, only the model is. Such a method:

@api.model
def method(self, args):
    ...

may be called in both record and traditional styles, like:

# recs = model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
recs.method(args)

model.method(cr, uid, args, context=context)

Notice that no ids are passed to the method in the traditional style.

odoo.api.depends(*args)[source]

Return a decorator that specifies the field dependencies of a “compute” method (for new-style function fields). Each argument must be a string that consists in a dot-separated sequence of field names:

pname = fields.Char(compute='_compute_pname')

@api.one
@api.depends('partner_id.name', 'partner_id.is_company')
def _compute_pname(self):
    if self.partner_id.is_company:
        self.pname = (self.partner_id.name or "").upper()
    else:
        self.pname = self.partner_id.name

One may also pass a single function as argument. In that case, the dependencies are given by calling the function with the field’s model.

odoo.api.constrains(*args)[source]

Decorates a constraint checker. Each argument must be a field name used in the check:

@api.one
@api.constrains('name', 'description')
def _check_description(self):
    if self.name == self.description:
        raise ValidationError("Fields name and description must be different")

Invoked on the records on which one of the named fields has been modified.

Should raise ValidationError if the validation failed.

odoo.api.onchange(*args)[source]

Return a decorator to decorate an onchange method for given fields. Each argument must be a field name:

@api.onchange('partner_id')
def _onchange_partner(self):
    self.message = "Dear %s" % (self.partner_id.name or "")

In the form views where the field appears, the method will be called when one of the given fields is modified. The method is invoked on a pseudo-record that contains the values present in the form. Field assignments on that record are automatically sent back to the client.

The method may return a dictionary for changing field domains and pop up a warning message, like in the old API:

return {
    'domain': {'other_id': [('partner_id', '=', partner_id)]},
    'warning': {'title': "Warning", 'message': "What is this?"},
}
odoo.api.returns(model, downgrade=None, upgrade=None)[source]

Return a decorator for methods that return instances of model.

Parameters
  • model – a model name, or 'self' for the current model
  • downgrade – a function downgrade(self, value, *args, **kwargs) to convert the record-style value to a traditional-style output
  • upgrade – a function upgrade(self, value, *args, **kwargs) to convert the traditional-style value to a record-style output

The arguments self, *args and **kwargs are the ones passed to the method in the record-style.

The decorator adapts the method output to the api style: id, ids or False for the traditional style, and recordset for the record style:

@model
@returns('res.partner')
def find_partner(self, arg):
    ...     # return some record

# output depends on call style: traditional vs record style
partner_id = model.find_partner(cr, uid, arg, context=context)

# recs = model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
partner_record = recs.find_partner(arg)

Note that the decorated method must satisfy that convention.

Those decorators are automatically inherited: a method that overrides a decorated existing method will be decorated with the same @returns(model).

odoo.api.one(method)[source]

Decorate a record-style method where self is expected to be a singleton instance. The decorated method automatically loops on records, and makes a list with the results. In case the method is decorated with returns(), it concatenates the resulting instances. Such a method:

@api.one
def method(self, args):
    return self.name

may be called in both record and traditional styles, like:

# recs = model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
names = recs.method(args)

names = model.method(cr, uid, ids, args, context=context)

Deprecated since version 9.0: one() often makes the code less clear and behaves in ways developers and readers may not expect.

It is strongly recommended to use multi() and either iterate on the self recordset or ensure that the recordset is a single record with ensure_one().

odoo.api.v7(method_v7)[source]

Decorate a method that supports the old-style api only. A new-style api may be provided by redefining a method with the same name and decorated with v8():

@api.v7
def foo(self, cr, uid, ids, context=None):
    ...

@api.v8
def foo(self):
    ...

Special care must be taken if one method calls the other one, because the method may be overridden! In that case, one should call the method from the current class (say MyClass), for instance:

@api.v7
def foo(self, cr, uid, ids, context=None):
    # Beware: records.foo() may call an overriding of foo()
    records = self.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
    return MyClass.foo(records)

Note that the wrapper method uses the docstring of the first method.

odoo.api.v8(method_v8)[source]

Decorate a method that supports the new-style api only. An old-style api may be provided by redefining a method with the same name and decorated with v7():

@api.v8
def foo(self):
    ...

@api.v7
def foo(self, cr, uid, ids, context=None):
    ...

Note that the wrapper method uses the docstring of the first method.

Fields

Basic fields

class odoo.fields.Field(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

The field descriptor contains the field definition, and manages accesses and assignments of the corresponding field on records. The following attributes may be provided when instanciating a field:

Parameters
  • string – the label of the field seen by users (string); if not set, the ORM takes the field name in the class (capitalized).
  • help – the tooltip of the field seen by users (string)
  • readonly – whether the field is readonly (boolean, by default False)
  • required – whether the value of the field is required (boolean, by default False)
  • index – whether the field is indexed in database (boolean, by default False)
  • default – the default value for the field; this is either a static value, or a function taking a recordset and returning a value; use default=None to discard default values for the field
  • states – a dictionary mapping state values to lists of UI attribute-value pairs; possible attributes are: ‘readonly’, ‘required’, ‘invisible’. Note: Any state-based condition requires the state field value to be available on the client-side UI. This is typically done by including it in the relevant views, possibly made invisible if not relevant for the end-user.
  • groups – comma-separated list of group xml ids (string); this restricts the field access to the users of the given groups only
  • copy (bool) – whether the field value should be copied when the record is duplicated (default: True for normal fields, False for one2many and computed fields, including property fields and related fields)
  • oldname (string) – the previous name of this field, so that ORM can rename it automatically at migration

Computed fields

One can define a field whose value is computed instead of simply being read from the database. The attributes that are specific to computed fields are given below. To define such a field, simply provide a value for the attribute compute.

Parameters
  • compute – name of a method that computes the field
  • inverse – name of a method that inverses the field (optional)
  • search – name of a method that implement search on the field (optional)
  • store – whether the field is stored in database (boolean, by default False on computed fields)
  • compute_sudo – whether the field should be recomputed as superuser to bypass access rights (boolean, by default False) Note that this has no effects on non-stored computed fields

The methods given for compute, inverse and search are model methods. Their signature is shown in the following example:

upper = fields.Char(compute='_compute_upper',
                    inverse='_inverse_upper',
                    search='_search_upper')

@api.depends('name')
def _compute_upper(self):
    for rec in self:
        rec.upper = rec.name.upper() if rec.name else False

def _inverse_upper(self):
    for rec in self:
        rec.name = rec.upper.lower() if rec.upper else False

def _search_upper(self, operator, value):
    if operator == 'like':
        operator = 'ilike'
    return [('name', operator, value)]

The compute method has to assign the field on all records of the invoked recordset. The decorator odoo.api.depends() must be applied on the compute method to specify the field dependencies; those dependencies are used to determine when to recompute the field; recomputation is automatic and guarantees cache/database consistency. Note that the same method can be used for several fields, you simply have to assign all the given fields in the method; the method will be invoked once for all those fields.

By default, a computed field is not stored to the database, and is computed on-the-fly. Adding the attribute store=True will store the field’s values in the database. The advantage of a stored field is that searching on that field is done by the database itself. The disadvantage is that it requires database updates when the field must be recomputed.

The inverse method, as its name says, does the inverse of the compute method: the invoked records have a value for the field, and you must apply the necessary changes on the field dependencies such that the computation gives the expected value. Note that a computed field without an inverse method is readonly by default.

The search method is invoked when processing domains before doing an actual search on the model. It must return a domain equivalent to the condition: field operator value.

The value of a related field is given by following a sequence of relational fields and reading a field on the reached model. The complete sequence of fields to traverse is specified by the attribute

Parameters
related – sequence of field names

Some field attributes are automatically copied from the source field if they are not redefined: string, help, readonly, required (only if all fields in the sequence are required), groups, digits, size, translate, sanitize, selection, comodel_name, domain, context. All semantic-free attributes are copied from the source field.

By default, the values of related fields are not stored to the database. Add the attribute store=True to make it stored, just like computed fields. Related fields are automatically recomputed when their dependencies are modified.

Company-dependent fields

Formerly known as ‘property’ fields, the value of those fields depends on the company. In other words, users that belong to different companies may see different values for the field on a given record.

Parameters
company_dependent – whether the field is company-dependent (boolean)

Incremental definition

A field is defined as class attribute on a model class. If the model is extended (see Model), one can also extend the field definition by redefining a field with the same name and same type on the subclass. In that case, the attributes of the field are taken from the parent class and overridden by the ones given in subclasses.

For instance, the second class below only adds a tooltip on the field state:

class First(models.Model):
    _name = 'foo'
    state = fields.Selection([...], required=True)

class Second(models.Model):
    _inherit = 'foo'
    state = fields.Selection(help="Blah blah blah")
class odoo.fields.Char(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._String

Basic string field, can be length-limited, usually displayed as a single-line string in clients.

Parameters
  • size (int) – the maximum size of values stored for that field
  • translate – enable the translation of the field’s values; use translate=True to translate field values as a whole; translate may also be a callable such that translate(callback, value) translates value by using callback(term) to retrieve the translation of terms.
class odoo.fields.Boolean(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

class odoo.fields.Integer(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

class odoo.fields.Float(string=<object object>, digits=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

The precision digits are given by the attribute

Parameters
digits – a pair (total, decimal), or a function taking a database cursor and returning a pair (total, decimal)
class odoo.fields.Text(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._String

Very similar to Char but used for longer contents, does not have a size and usually displayed as a multiline text box.

Parameters
translate – enable the translation of the field’s values; use translate=True to translate field values as a whole; translate may also be a callable such that translate(callback, value) translates value by using callback(term) to retrieve the translation of terms.
class odoo.fields.Selection(selection=<object object>, string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

Parameters
  • selection – specifies the possible values for this field. It is given as either a list of pairs (value, string), or a model method, or a method name.
  • selection_add – provides an extension of the selection in the case of an overridden field. It is a list of pairs (value, string).

The attribute selection is mandatory except in the case of related fields or field extensions.

class odoo.fields.Html(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._String

class odoo.fields.Date(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

static context_today(record, timestamp=None)[source]

Return the current date as seen in the client’s timezone in a format fit for date fields. This method may be used to compute default values.

Parameters
timestamp (datetime) – optional datetime value to use instead of the current date and time (must be a datetime, regular dates can’t be converted between timezones.)
Return type
str
static from_string(value)[source]

Convert an ORM value into a date value.

static to_string(value)[source]

Convert a date value into the format expected by the ORM.

static today(*args)[source]

Return the current day in the format expected by the ORM. This function may be used to compute default values.

class odoo.fields.Datetime(string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Field

static context_timestamp(record, timestamp)[source]

Returns the given timestamp converted to the client’s timezone. This method is not meant for use as a default initializer, because datetime fields are automatically converted upon display on client side. For default values fields.datetime.now() should be used instead.

Parameters
timestamp (datetime) – naive datetime value (expressed in UTC) to be converted to the client timezone
Return type
datetime
Returns
timestamp converted to timezone-aware datetime in context timezone
static from_string(value)[source]

Convert an ORM value into a datetime value.

static now(*args)[source]

Return the current day and time in the format expected by the ORM. This function may be used to compute default values.

static to_string(value)[source]

Convert a datetime value into the format expected by the ORM.

Relational fields

class odoo.fields.Many2one(comodel_name=<object object>, string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._Relational

The value of such a field is a recordset of size 0 (no record) or 1 (a single record).

Parameters
  • comodel_name – name of the target model (string)
  • domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)
  • context – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field (dictionary)
  • ondelete – what to do when the referred record is deleted; possible values are: 'set null', 'restrict', 'cascade'
  • auto_join – whether JOINs are generated upon search through that field (boolean, by default False)
  • delegate – set it to True to make fields of the target model accessible from the current model (corresponds to _inherits)

The attribute comodel_name is mandatory except in the case of related fields or field extensions.

class odoo.fields.One2many(comodel_name=<object object>, inverse_name=<object object>, string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._RelationalMulti

One2many field; the value of such a field is the recordset of all the records in comodel_name such that the field inverse_name is equal to the current record.

Parameters
  • comodel_name – name of the target model (string)
  • inverse_name – name of the inverse Many2one field in comodel_name (string)
  • domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)
  • context – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field (dictionary)
  • auto_join – whether JOINs are generated upon search through that field (boolean, by default False)
  • limit – optional limit to use upon read (integer)

The attributes comodel_name and inverse_name are mandatory except in the case of related fields or field extensions.

class odoo.fields.Many2many(comodel_name=<object object>, relation=<object object>, column1=<object object>, column2=<object object>, string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields._RelationalMulti

Many2many field; the value of such a field is the recordset.

Parameters
comodel_name – name of the target model (string)

The attribute comodel_name is mandatory except in the case of related fields or field extensions.

Parameters
  • relation – optional name of the table that stores the relation in the database (string)
  • column1 – optional name of the column referring to “these” records in the table relation (string)
  • column2 – optional name of the column referring to “those” records in the table relation (string)

The attributes relation, column1 and column2 are optional. If not given, names are automatically generated from model names, provided model_name and comodel_name are different!

Parameters
  • domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)
  • context – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field (dictionary)
  • limit – optional limit to use upon read (integer)
class odoo.fields.Reference(selection=<object object>, string=<object object>, **kwargs)[source]

Bases: odoo.fields.Selection

Inheritance and extension

Odoo provides three different mechanisms to extend models in a modular way:

  • creating a new model from an existing one, adding new information to the copy but leaving the original module as-is
  • extending models defined in other modules in-place, replacing the previous version
  • delegating some of the model’s fields to records it contains

Classical inheritance

When using the _inherit and _name attributes together, Odoo creates a new model using the existing one (provided via _inherit) as a base. The new model gets all the fields, methods and meta-information (defaults & al) from its base.


class Inheritance0(models.Model):
    _name = 'inheritance.0'

    name = fields.Char()

    def call(self):
        return self.check("model 0")

    def check(self, s):
        return "This is {} record {}".format(s, self.name)

class Inheritance1(models.Model):
    _name = 'inheritance.1'
    _inherit = 'inheritance.0'

    def call(self):
        return self.check("model 1")

and using them:

        a = env['inheritance.0'].create({'name': 'A'})
        b = env['inheritance.1'].create({'name': 'B'})
            a.call()
            b.call()

will yield:

            "This is model 0 record A"
            "This is model 1 record B"

the second model has inherited from the first model’s check method and its name field, but overridden the call method, as when using standard Python inheritance.

Extension

When using _inherit but leaving out _name, the new model replaces the existing one, essentially extending it in-place. This is useful to add new fields or methods to existing models (created in other modules), or to customize or reconfigure them (e.g. to change their default sort order):

    _name = 'extension.0'

    name = fields.Char(default="A")

class Extension1(models.Model):
    _inherit = 'extension.0'

    description = fields.Char(default="Extended")

        record = env['extension.0'].create({})
        record.read()[0]

will yield:

        {'name': "A", 'description': "Extended"}

Delegation

The third inheritance mechanism provides more flexibility (it can be altered at runtime) but less power: using the _inherits a model delegates the lookup of any field not found on the current model to “children” models. The delegation is performed via Reference fields automatically set up on the parent model:


class Child0(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.child0'

    field_0 = fields.Integer()

class Child1(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.child1'

    field_1 = fields.Integer()

class Delegating(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.parent'

    _inherits = {
        'delegation.child0': 'child0_id',
        'delegation.child1': 'child1_id',
    }

    child0_id = fields.Many2one('delegation.child0', required=True, ondelete='cascade')
    child1_id = fields.Many2one('delegation.child1', required=True, ondelete='cascade')

        record = env['delegation.parent'].create({
            'child0_id': env['delegation.child0'].create({'field_0': 0}).id,
            'child1_id': env['delegation.child1'].create({'field_1': 1}).id,
        })
            record.field_0
            record.field_1

will result in:

            0
            1

and it’s possible to write directly on the delegated field:

        record.write({'field_1': 4})

Domains

A domain is a list of criteria, each criterion being a triple (either a list or a tuple) of (field_name, operator, value) where:

field_name (str)
a field name of the current model, or a relationship traversal through a Many2one using dot-notation e.g. 'street' or 'partner_id.country'
operator (str)

an operator used to compare the field_name with the value. Valid operators are:

=
equals to
!=
not equals to
>
greater than
>=
greater than or equal to
<
less than
<=
less than or equal to
=?
unset or equals to (returns true if value is either None or False, otherwise behaves like =)
=like
matches field_name against the value pattern. An underscore _ in the pattern stands for (matches) any single character; a percent sign % matches any string of zero or more characters.
like
matches field_name against the %value% pattern. Similar to =like but wraps value with ‘%’ before matching
not like
doesn’t match against the %value% pattern
ilike
case insensitive like
not ilike
case insensitive not like
=ilike
case insensitive =like
in
is equal to any of the items from value, value should be a list of items
not in
is unequal to all of the items from value
child_of

is a child (descendant) of a value record.

Takes the semantics of the model into account (i.e following the relationship field named by _parent_name).

value
variable type, must be comparable (through operator) to the named field

Domain criteria can be combined using logical operators in prefix form:

'&'
logical AND, default operation to combine criteria following one another. Arity 2 (uses the next 2 criteria or combinations).
'|'
logical OR, arity 2.
'!'

logical NOT, arity 1.

Porting from the old API to the new API

  • bare lists of ids are to be avoided in the new API, use recordsets instead
  • methods still written in the old API should be automatically bridged by the ORM, no need to switch to the old API, just call them as if they were a new API method. See Automatic bridging of old API methods for more details.
  • search() returns a recordset, no point in e.g. browsing its result
  • fields.related and fields.function are replaced by using a normal field type with either a related= or a compute= parameter
  • depends() on compute= methods must be complete, it must list all the fields and sub-fields which the compute method uses. It is better to have too many dependencies (will recompute the field in cases where that is not needed) than not enough (will forget to recompute the field and then values will be incorrect)
  • remove all onchange methods on computed fields. Computed fields are automatically re-computed when one of their dependencies is changed, and that is used to auto-generate onchange by the client
  • the decorators model() and multi() are for bridging when calling from the old API context, for internal or pure new-api (e.g. compute) they are useless
  • remove _default, replace by default= parameter on corresponding fields

  • if a field’s string= is the titlecased version of the field name:

    name = fields.Char(string="Name")

    it is useless and should be removed

  • the multi= parameter does not do anything on new API fields use the same compute= methods on all relevant fields for the same result
  • provide compute=, inverse= and search= methods by name (as a string), this makes them overridable (removes the need for an intermediate “trampoline” function)
  • double check that all fields and methods have different names, there is no warning in case of collision (because Python handles it before Odoo sees anything)
  • the normal new-api import is from odoo import fields, models. If compatibility decorators are necessary, use from odoo import api, fields, models
  • avoid the one() decorator, it probably does not do what you expect
  • remove explicit definition of create_uid, create_date, write_uid and write_date fields: they are now created as regular “legitimate” fields, and can be read and written like any other field out-of-the-box

  • when straight conversion is impossible (semantics can not be bridged) or the “old API” version is not desirable and could be improved for the new API, it is possible to use completely different “old API” and “new API” implementations for the same method name using v7() and v8(). The method should first be defined using the old-API style and decorated with v7(), it should then be re-defined using the exact same name but the new-API style and decorated with v8(). Calls from an old-API context will be dispatched to the first implementation and calls from a new-API context will be dispatched to the second implementation. One implementation can call (and frequently does) call the other by switching context.

  • uses of _columns or _all_columns should be replaced by _fields, which provides access to instances of new-style odoo.fields.Field instances (rather than old-style odoo.osv.fields._column).

    Non-stored computed fields created using the new API style are not available in _columns and can only be inspected through _fields

  • reassigning self in a method is probably unnecessary and may break translation introspection

  • Environment objects rely on some threadlocal state, which has to be set up before using them. It is necessary to do so using the odoo.api.Environment.manage() context manager when trying to use the new API in contexts where it hasn’t been set up yet, such as new threads or a Python interactive environment:

    >>> from odoo import api, modules
>>> r = modules.registry.RegistryManager.get('test')
>>> cr = r.cursor()
>>> env = api.Environment(cr, 1, {})
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AttributeError: environments
>>> with api.Environment.manage():
...     env = api.Environment(cr, 1, {})
...     print env['res.partner'].browse(1)
...
res.partner(1,)

Automatic bridging of old API methods

When models are initialized, all methods are automatically scanned and bridged if they look like models declared in the old API style. This bridging makes them transparently callable from new-API-style methods.

Methods are matched as “old-API style” if their second positional parameter (after self) is called either cr or cursor. The system also recognizes the third positional parameter being called uid or user and the fourth being called id or ids. It also recognizes the presence of any parameter called context.

When calling such methods from a new API context, the system will automatically fill matched parameters from the current Environment (for cr, user and context) or the current recordset (for id and ids).

In the rare cases where it is necessary, the bridging can be customized by decorating the old-style method:

  • disabling it entirely, by decorating a method with noguess() there will be no bridging and methods will be called the exact same way from the new and old API styles

  • defining the bridge explicitly, this is mostly for methods which are matched incorrectly (because parameters are named in unexpected ways):

    cr()
    will automatically prepend the current cursor to explicitly provided parameters, positionally
    cr_uid()
    will automatically prepend the current cursor and user’s id to explictly provided parameters
    cr_uid_ids()
    will automatically prepend the current cursor, user’s id and recordset’s ids to explicitly provided parameters
    cr_uid_id()

    will loop over the current recordset and call the method once for each record, prepending the current cursor, user’s id and record’s id to explicitly provided parameters.

    All of these methods have a _context-suffixed version (e.g. cr_uid_context()) which also passes the current context by keyword.

  • dual implementations using v7() and v8() will be ignored as they provide their own “bridging”