Views

Common Structure

View objects expose a number of fields, they are optional unless specified otherwise.

name (mandatory)
only useful as a mnemonic/description of the view when looking for one in a list of some sort
model
the model linked to the view, if applicable (it doesn’t for QWeb views)
priority

client programs can request views by id, or by (model, type). For the latter, all the views for the right type and model will be searched, and the one with the lowest priority number will be returned (it is the “default view”).

priority also defines the order of application during view inheritance

arch
the description of the view’s layout
groups_id
Many2many field to the groups allowed to view/use the current view
inherit_id
the current view’s parent view, see Inheritance, unset by default
mode
inheritance mode, see Inheritance. If inherit_id is unset the mode can only be primary. If inherit_id is set, extension by default but can be explicitly set to primary
application
website feature defining togglable views. By default, views are always applied
banner_route

a route address to be fetched and prepended to the view.

If this attribute is set, the controller route url will be fetched and displayed above the view. The json response from the controller should contain an “html” key.

If the html contains a stylesheet <link> tag, it will be removed and appended to <head>.

To interact with the backend you can use <a type=”action”> tags. Please take a look at the documentation of the _onActionClicked method of AbstractController (addons/web/static/src/js/views/abstract_controller.js) for more details.

Only views extending AbstractView and AbstractController can use this attribute, like Forms, Kanban, Lists, …

Example:

<tree banner_route="/module_name/hello" />

class MyController(odoo.http.Controller):
    @http.route('/module_name/hello', auth='user', type='json')
    def hello(self):
        return {
            'html': """
                <div>
                    <link href="/module_name/static/src/css/banner.css"
                        rel="stylesheet">
                    <h1>hello, world</h1>
                </div> """
        }

Inheritance

View matching

  • if a view is requested by (model, type), the view with the right model and type, mode=primary and the lowest priority is matched
  • when a view is requested by id, if its mode is not primary its closest parent with mode primary is matched

View resolution

Resolution generates the final arch for a requested/matched primary view:

  1. if the view has a parent, the parent is fully resolved then the current view’s inheritance specs are applied
  2. if the view has no parent, its arch is used as-is
  3. the current view’s children with mode extension are looked up and their inheritance specs are applied depth-first (a child view is applied, then its children, then its siblings)

The result of applying children views yields the final arch

Inheritance specs

Inheritance specs are comprised of an element locator, to match the inherited element in the parent view, and children element that will be used to modify the inherited element.

There are three types of element locators for matching a target element:

  • An xpath element with an expr attribute. expr is an XPath expression2 applied to the current arch, the first node it finds is the match
  • a field element with a name attribute, matches the first field with the same name. All other attributes are ignored during matching
  • any other element: the first element with the same name and identical attributes (ignoring position and version attributes) is matched

The inheritance spec may have an optional position attribute specifying how the matched node should be altered:

inside (default)
the content of the inheritance spec is appended to the matched node
replace
the content of the inheritance spec replaces the matched node. Any text node containing only $0 within the contents of the spec will be replaced by a complete copy of the matched node, effectively wrapping the matched node.
after
the content of the inheritance spec is added to the matched node’s parent, after the matched node
before
the content of the inheritance spec is added to the matched node’s parent, before the matched node
attributes

the content of the inheritance spec should be attribute elements with a name attribute and an optional body:

  • if the attribute element has a body, a new attributed named after its name is created on the matched node with the attribute element’s text as value
  • if the attribute element has no body, the attribute named after its name is removed from the matched node. If no such attribute exists, an error is raised

Additionally, the position move can be used as a direct child of a spec with a inside, replace, after or before position attribute to move a node.

<xpath expr="//@target" position="after">
    <xpath expr="//@node" position="move"/>
</xpath>

<field name="target_field" position="after">
    <field name="my_field" position="move"/>
</field>

A view’s specs are applied sequentially.

Lists

The root element of list views is <tree>3. The list view’s root can have the following attributes:

editable

by default, selecting a list view’s row opens the corresponding form view. The editable attributes makes the list view itself editable in-place.

Valid values are top and bottom, making new records appear respectively at the top or bottom of the list.

The architecture for the inline form view is derived from the list view. Most attributes valid on a form view’s fields and buttons are thus accepted by list views although they may not have any meaning if the list view is non-editable

default_order

overrides the ordering of the view, replacing the model’s default order. The value is a comma-separated list of fields, postfixed by desc to sort in reverse order:

<tree default_order="sequence,name desc">
colors

Deprecated since version 9.0: replaced by decoration-{$name}

fonts

Deprecated since version 9.0: replaced by decoration-{$name}

decoration-{$name}

allow changing the style of a row’s text based on the corresponding record’s attributes.

Values are Python expressions. For each record, the expression is evaluated with the record’s attributes as context values and if true, the corresponding style is applied to the row. Other context values are uid (the id of the current user) and current_date (the current date as a string of the form yyyy-MM-dd).

{$name} can be bf (font-weight: bold), it (font-style: italic), or any bootstrap contextual color (danger, info, muted, primary, success or warning).

create, edit, delete
allows disabling the corresponding action in the view by setting the corresponding attribute to false
limit
the default size of a page. It should be a positive integer
on_write

only makes sense on an editable list. Should be the name of a method on the list’s model. The method will be called with the id of a record after having created or edited that record (in database).

The method should return a list of ids of other records to load or update.

string

alternative translatable label for the view

Deprecated since version 8.0: not displayed anymore

Possible children elements of the list view are:

button

displays a button in a list cell

icon
icon to use to display the button
string
  • if there is no icon, the button’s text
  • if there is an icon, alt text for the icon
type

type of button, indicates how it clicking it affects Odoo:

object
call a method on the list’s model. The button’s name is the method, which is called with the current row’s record id and the current context.
action
load an execute an ir.actions, the button’s name is the database id of the action. The context is expanded with the list’s model (as active_model), the current row’s record (active_id) and all the records currently loaded in the list (active_ids, may be just a subset of the database records matching the current search)
name
see type
args
see type
attrs

dynamic attributes based on record values.

A mapping of attributes to domains, domains are evaluated in the context of the current row’s record, if True the corresponding attribute is set on the cell.

Possible attribute is invisible (hides the button).

states

shorthand for invisible attrs: a list of states, comma separated, requires that the model has a state field and that it is used in the view.

Makes the button invisible if the record is not in one of the listed states

context
merged into the view’s context when performing the button’s Odoo call
confirm
confirmation message to display (and for the user to accept) before performing the button’s Odoo call
field

defines a column where the corresponding field should be displayed for each record. Can use the following attributes:

name
the name of the field to display in the current model. A given name can only be used once per view
string
the title of the field’s column (by default, uses the string of the model’s field)
invisible
fetches and stores the field, but doesn’t display the column in the table. Necessary for fields which shouldn’t be displayed but are used by e.g. @colors
groups
lists the groups which should be able to see the field
widget

alternate representations for a field’s display. Possible list view values are:

progressbar
displays float fields as a progress bar.
many2onebutton
replaces the m2o field’s value by a checkmark if the field is filled, and a cross if it is not
handle
for sequence fields, instead of displaying the field’s value just displays a drag&drop icon
sum, avg
displays the corresponding aggregate at the bottom of the column. The aggregation is only computed on currently displayed records. The aggregation operation must match the corresponding field’s group_operator
attrs
dynamic attributes based on record values. Only effects the current field, so e.g. invisible will hide the field but leave the same field of other records visible, it will not hide the column itself
control

defines custom controls for the current view.

This makes sense if the parent tree view is inside a One2many field.

Does not support any attribute, but can have children:

create

adds a button to create a new element on the current list.

The following attributes are supported:

string (required)
The text displayed on the button.
context

This context will be merged into the existing context when retrieving the default value of the new record.

For example it can be used to override default values.

The following example will override the default “add a line” button by replacing it with 3 new buttons: “Add a product”, “Add a section” and “Add a note”.

“Add a product” will set the field ‘display_type’ to its default value.

The two other buttons will set the field ‘display_type’ to be respectively ‘line_section’ and ‘line_note’.

<control>
  <create
    string="Add a product"
  />
  <create
    string="Add a section"
    context="{'default_display_type': 'line_section'}"
  />
  <create
    string="Add a note"
    context="{'default_display_type': 'line_note'}"
  />
</control>

Forms

Form views are used to display the data from a single record. Their root element is <form>. They are composed of regular HTML with additional structural and semantic components.

Structural components

Structural components provide structure or “visual” features with little logic. They are used as elements or sets of elements in form views.

notebook

defines a tabbed section. Each tab is defined through a page child element. Pages can have the following attributes:

string (required)
the title of the tab
accesskey
an HTML accesskey
attrs
standard dynamic attributes based on record values
group

used to define column layouts in forms. By default, groups define 2 columns and most direct children of groups take a single column. field direct children of groups display a label by default, and the label and the field itself have a colspan of 1 each.

The number of columns in a group can be customized using the col attribute, the number of columns taken by an element can be customized using colspan.

Children are laid out horizontally (tries to fill the next column before changing row).

Groups can have a string attribute, which is displayed as the group’s title

newline
only useful within group elements, ends the current row early and immediately switches to a new row (without filling any remaining column beforehand)
separator
small horizontal spacing, with a string attribute behaves as a section title
sheet
can be used as a direct child to form for a narrower and more responsive form layout
header
combined with sheet, provides a full-width location above the sheet itself, generally used to display workflow buttons and status widgets

Semantic components

Semantic components tie into and allow interaction with the Odoo system. Available semantic components are:

button

call into the Odoo system, similar to list view buttons. In addition, the following attribute can be specified:

special
for form views opened in dialogs: save to save the record and close the dialog, cancel to close the dialog without saving.
field

renders (and allow edition of, possibly) a single field of the current record. Possible attributes are:

name (mandatory)
the name of the field to render
widget
fields have a default rendering based on their type (e.g. Char, Many2one). The widget attributes allows using a different rendering method and context.
options
JSON object specifying configuration option for the field’s widget (including default widgets)
class

HTML class to set on the generated element, common field classes are:

oe_inline
prevent the usual line break following fields
oe_left, oe_right
floats the field to the corresponding direction
oe_read_only, oe_edit_only
only displays the field in the corresponding form mode
oe_no_button
avoids displaying the navigation button in a Many2one
oe_avatar
for image fields, displays images as “avatar” (square, 90x90 maximum size, some image decorations)
groups
only displays the field for specific users
on_change

calls the specified method when this field’s value is edited, can generate update other fields or display warnings for the user

Deprecated since version 8.0: Use odoo.api.onchange() on the model

attrs
dynamic meta-parameters based on record values
domain
for relational fields only, filters to apply when displaying existing records for selection
context
for relational fields only, context to pass when fetching possible values
readonly
display the field in both readonly and edition mode, but never make it editable
required
generates an error and prevents saving the record if the field doesn’t have a value
nolabel
don’t automatically display the field’s label, only makes sense if the field is a direct child of a group element
placeholder
help message to display in empty fields. Can replace field labels in complex forms. Should not be an example of data as users are liable to confuse placeholder text with filled fields
mode
for One2many, display mode (view type) to use for the field’s linked records. One of tree, form, kanban or graph. The default is tree (a list display)
help
tooltip displayed for users when hovering the field or its label
filename
for binary fields, name of the related field providing the name of the file
password
indicates that a Char field stores a password and that its data shouldn’t be displayed

Graphs

The graph view is used to visualize aggregations over a number of records or record groups. Its root element is <graph> which can take the following attributes:

type
one of bar (default), pie and line, the type of graph to use
stacked
only used for bar charts. If present and set to True, stacks bars within a group

The only allowed element within a graph view is field which can have the following attributes:

name (required)
the name of a field to use in the view. If used for grouping (rather than aggregating)
title (optional)
string displayed on the top of the graph.
type

indicates whether the field should be used as a grouping criteria or as an aggregated value within a group. Possible values are:

row (default)
groups by the specified field. All graph types support at least one level of grouping, some may support more.
col
authorized in graph views but only used by pivot tables
measure
field to aggregate within a group
interval
on date and datetime fields, groups by the specified interval (day, week, month, quarter or year) instead of grouping on the specific datetime (fixed second resolution) or date (fixed day resolution).

The measures are automatically generated from the model fields; only the aggregatable fields are used. Those measures are also alphabetically sorted on the string of the field.

Pivots

The pivot view is used to visualize aggregations as a pivot table. Its root element is <pivot> which can take the following attributes:

disable_linking
Set to True to remove table cell’s links to list view.
display_quantity
Set to true to display the Quantity column by default.
default_order

The name of the measure and the order (asc or desc) to use as default order in the view.

<pivot default_order="foo asc">
   <field name="foo" type="measure"/>
</pivot>

The only allowed element within a pivot view is field which can have the following attributes:

name (required)
the name of a field to use in the view. If used for grouping (rather than aggregating)
string
the name that will be used to display the field in the pivot view, overrides the default python String attribute of the field.
type

indicates whether the field should be used as a grouping criteria or as an aggregated value within a group. Possible values are:

row (default)
groups by the specified field, each group gets its own row.
col
creates column-wise groups
measure
field to aggregate within a group
interval
on date and datetime fields, groups by the specified interval (day, week, month, quarter or year) instead of grouping on the specific datetime (fixed second resolution) or date (fixed day resolution).
invisible
if true, the field will not appear either in the active measures nor in the selectable measures (useful for fields that do not make sense aggregated, such as fields in different units, e.g. € and $).

The measures are automatically generated from the model fields; only the aggregatable fields are used. Those measures are also alphabetically sorted on the string of the field.

In Pivot view a field can have a widget attribute to dictate its format. The widget should be a field formatter, of which the most interesting are date, datetime, float_time, and monetary.

For instance a timesheet pivot view could be defined as:

<pivot string="Timesheet">
    <field name="employee_id" type="row"/>
    <field name="date" interval="month" type="col"/>
    <field name="unit_amount" type="measure" widget="float_time"/>
</pivot>

Kanban

The kanban view is a kanban board visualisation: it displays records as “cards”, halfway between a list view and a non-editable form view. Records may be grouped in columns for use in workflow visualisation or manipulation (e.g. tasks or work-progress management), or ungrouped (used simply to visualize records).

The root element of the Kanban view is <kanban>, it can use the following attributes:

default_group_by
whether the kanban view should be grouped if no grouping is specified via the action or the current search. Should be the name of the field to group by when no grouping is otherwise specified
default_order
cards sorting order used if the user has not already sorted the records (via the list view)
class
adds HTML classes to the root HTML element of the Kanban view
group_create
whether the “Add a new column” bar is visible or not. Default: true.
group_delete
whether groups can be deleted via the context menu. Default: true.
group_edit
whether groups can be edited via the context menu. Default: true.
archivable
whether records belonging to a column can be archived / restored if an active field is defined on the model. Default: true.
quick_create

whether it should be possible to create records without switching to the form view. By default, quick_create is enabled when the Kanban view is grouped by many2one, selection, char or boolean fields, and disabled when not.

Set to true to always enable it, and to false to always disable it.

Possible children of the view element are:

field

declares fields to use in kanban logic. If the field is simply displayed in the kanban view, it does not need to be pre-declared.

Possible attributes are:

name (required)
the name of the field to fetch
progressbar

declares a progressbar element to put on top of kanban columns.

Possible attributes are:

field (required)
the name of the field whose values are used to subgroup column’s records in the progressbar
colors (required)
JSON mapping the above field values to either “danger”, “warning” or “success” colors
sum_field (optional)
the name of the field whose column’s records’ values will be summed and displayed next to the progressbar (if omitted, displays the total number of records)
templates

defines a list of QWeb templates. Cards definition may be split into multiple templates for clarity, but kanban views must define at least one root template kanban-box, which will be rendered once for each record.

The kanban view uses mostly-standard javascript qweb and provides the following context variables:

widget
the current KanbanRecord(), can be used to fetch some meta-information. These methods are also available directly in the template context and don’t need to be accessed via widget
record
an object with all the requested fields as its attributes. Each field has two attributes value and raw_value, the former is formatted according to current user parameters, the latter is the direct value from a read() (except for date and datetime fields that are formatted according to user’s locale)
read_only_mode

self-explanatory

buttons and fields

While most of the Kanban templates are standard QWeb, the Kanban view processes field, button and a elements specially:

  • by default fields are replaced by their formatted value, unless they match specific kanban view widgets

  • buttons and links with a type attribute become perform Odoo-related operations rather than their standard HTML function. Possible types are:

    action, object
    standard behavior for Odoo buttons, most attributes relevant to standard Odoo buttons can be used.
    open
    opens the card’s record in the form view in read-only mode
    edit
    opens the card’s record in the form view in editable mode
    delete
    deletes the card’s record and removes the card

If you need to extend the Kanban view, see :js:class::[UNKNOWN NODE title_reference].

Calendar

Calendar views display records as events in a daily, weekly or monthly calendar. Their root element is <calendar>. Available attributes on the calendar view are:

date_start (required)
name of the record’s field holding the start date for the event
date_stop
name of the record’s field holding the end date for the event, if date_stop is provided records become movable (via drag and drop) directly in the calendar
date_delay
alternative to date_stop, provides the duration of the event instead of its end date (unit: day)
color
name of a record field to use for color segmentation. Records in the same color segment are allocated the same highlight color in the calendar, colors are allocated semi-randomly. Displayed the display_name/avatar of the visible record in the sidebar
readonly_form_view_id
view to open in readonly mode
form_view_id
view to open when the user create or edit an event. Note that if this attribute is not set, the calendar view will fall back to the id of the form view in the current action, if any.
event_open_popup
If the option ‘event_open_popup’ is set to true, then the calendar view will open events (or records) in a FormViewDialog. Otherwise, it will open events in a new form view (with a do_action)
quick_add
enables quick-event creation on click: only asks the user for a name and tries to create a new event with just that and the clicked event time. Falls back to a full form dialog if the quick creation fails
all_day
name of a boolean field on the record indicating whether the corresponding event is flagged as day-long (and duration is irrelevant)
mode
Default display mode when loading the calendar. Possible attributes are: day, week, month
<field>

declares fields to aggregate or to use in kanban logic. If the field is simply displayed in the calendar cards.

Fields can have additional attributes:

invisible
use “True” to hide the value in the cards
avatar_field
only for x2many field, to display the avatar instead the display_name in the cards
write_model and write_field
you can add a filter and save the result in the defined model, the filter is added in the sidebar
templates

defines the QWeb template calendar-box. Cards definition may be split into multiple templates for clarity which will be rendered once for each record.

The kanban view uses mostly-standard javascript qweb and provides the following context variables:

widget
the current KanbanRecord(), can be used to fetch some meta-information. These methods are also available directly in the template context and don’t need to be accessed via widget getColor to convert in a color integer getAvatars to convert in an avatar image displayFields list of not invisible fields
record
an object with all the requested fields as its attributes. Each field has two attributes value and raw_value
event
the calendar event object
format
format method to convert values into a readable string with the user parameters
fields
definition of all model fields parameters
user_context
self-explanatory
read_only_mode
self-explanatory

Gantt

Gantt views appropriately display Gantt charts (for scheduling).

The root element of gantt views is <gantt/>, it has no children but can take the following attributes:

date_start (required)
name of the field providing the start datetime of the event for each record.
date_stop

name of the field providing the end duration of the event for each record. Can be replaced by date_delay. One (and only one) of date_stop and date_delay must be provided.

If the field is False for a record, it’s assumed to be a “point event” and the end date will be set to the start date

date_delay
name of the field providing the duration of the event
duration_unit
one of minute, hour (default), day, week, month, year
default_group_by
name of a field to group tasks by
type

gantt classic gantt view (default)

consolidate values of the first children are consolidated in the gantt’s task

planning children are displayed in the gantt’s task

consolidation
field name to display consolidation value in record cell
consolidation_max
dictionary with the “group by” field as key and the maximum consolidation value that can be reached before displaying the cell in red (e.g. {"user_id": 100})
consolidation_exclude

name of the field that describe if the task has to be excluded from the consolidation if set to true it displays a striped zone in the consolidation line

create, edit
allows disabling the corresponding action in the view by setting the corresponding attribute to false
string
string to display next to the consolidation value, if not specified, the label of the consolidation field will be used
fold_last_level
If a value is set, the last grouping level is folded
round_dnd_dates
enables rounding the task’s start and end dates to the nearest scale marks
drag_resize
resizing of the tasks, default is true
progress
name of a field providing the completion percentage for the record’s event, between 0 and 100

Diagram

The diagram view can be used to display directed graphs of records. The root element is <diagram> and takes no attributes.

Possible children of the diagram view are:

node (required, 1)

Defines the nodes of the graph. Its attributes are:

object
the node’s Odoo model
shape
conditional shape mapping similar to colors and fonts in the list view. The only valid shape is rectangle (the default shape is an ellipsis)
bgcolor
same as shape, but conditionally maps a background color for nodes. The default background color is white, the only valid alternative is grey.
arrow (required, 1)

Defines the directed edges of the graph. Its attributes are:

object (required)
the edge’s Odoo model
source (required)
Many2one field of the edge’s model pointing to the edge’s source node record
destination (required)
Many2one field of the edge’s model pointing to the edge’s destination node record
label
Python list of attributes (as quoted strings). The corresponding attributes’s values will be concatenated and displayed as the edge’s label
label
Explanatory note for the diagram, the string attribute defines the note’s content. Each label is output as a paragraph in the diagram header, easily visible but without any special emphasis.

Dashboard

Like pivot and graph view, The dashboard view is used to display aggregate data. However, the dashboard can embed sub views, which makes it possible to have a more complete and interesting look on a given dataset.

The dashboard view can display sub views, aggregates for some fields (over a domain), or even formulas (expressions which involves one or more aggregates). For example, here is a very simple dashboard:

<dashboard>
    <view type="graph" ref="sale_report.view_order_product_graph"/>
    <group string="Sale">
        <aggregate name="price_total" field="price_total" widget="monetary"/>
        <aggregate name="order_id" field="order_id" string="Orders"/>
        <formula name="price_average" string="Price Average"
            value="record.price_total / record.order_id" widget="percentage"/>
    </group>
    <view type="pivot" ref="sale_report.view_order_product_pivot"/>
</dashboard>

The root element of the Dashboard view is <dashboard>, it does not accept any attributes.

There are 5 possible type of tags in a dashboard view:

view

declares a sub view.

Admissible attributes are:

  • type (mandatory)
    The type of the sub view. For example, graph or pivot.
  • ref (optional)
    An xml id for a view. If not given, the default view for the model will be used.
  • name (optional)
    A string which identifies this element. It is mostly useful to be used as a target for an xpath.
group

defines a column layout. This is actually very similar to the group element in a form view.

Admissible attributes are:

  • string (optional)
    A description which will be displayed as a group title.
  • colspan (optional)
    The number of subcolumns in this group tag. By default, 6.
  • col (optional)
    The number of columns spanned by this group tag (only makes sense inside another group). By default, 6.
aggregate

declares an aggregate. This is the value of an aggregate for a given field over the current domain.

Note that aggregates are supposed to be used inside a group tag (otherwise the style will not be properly applied).

Admissible attributes are:

  • field (mandatory)

    The field name to use for computing the aggregate. Possible field types are:

    • integer (default group operator is sum)
    • float (default group operator is sum)
    • many2one (default group operator is count distinct)
  • name (mandatory)
    A string to identify this aggregate (useful for formulas)
  • string (optional)
    A short description that will be displayed above the value. If not given, it will fall back to the field string.
  • domain (optional)
    An additional restriction on the set of records that we want to aggregate. This domain will be combined with the current domain.
  • domain_label (optional)
    When the user clicks on an aggregate with a domain, it will be added to the search view as a facet. The string displayed for this facet can be customized with this attribute.
  • group_operator (optional)

    A valid postgreSQL aggregate function identifier to use when aggregating values (see https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/functions-aggregate.html). If not provided, By default, the group_operator from the field definition is used. Note that no aggregation of field values is achieved if the group_operator value is “”.

    <aggregate name="price_total_max" field="price_total" group_operator="max"/>
  • col (optional)
    The number of columns spanned by this tag (only makes sense inside a group). By default, 1.
  • widget (optional)
    A widget to format the value (like the widget attribute for fields). For example, monetary.
  • help (optional)
    A help message to dipslay in a tooltip (equivalent of help for a field in python)
  • measure (optional)

    This attribute is the name of a field describing the measure that has to be used in the graph and pivot views when clicking on the aggregate. The special value __count__ can be used to use the count measure.

    <aggregate name="total_ojects" string="Total Objects" field="id" group_operator="count" measure="__count__"/>
  • clickable (optional)
    A boolean indicating if this aggregate should be clickable or not (default to true). Clicking on a clickable aggregate will change the measures used by the subviews and add the value of the domain attribute (if any) to the search view.
  • value_label (optional)
    A string put on the right of the aggregate value. For example, it can be useful to indicate the unit of measure of the aggregate value.
formula

declares a derived value. Formulas are values computed from aggregates.

Note that like aggregates, formulas are supposed to be used inside a group tag (otherwise the style will not be properly applied).

Admissible attributes are:

  • value (mandatory)
    A string expression that will be evaluated, with the builtin python evaluator (in the web client). Every aggregate can be used in the context, in the record variable. For example, record.price_total / record.order_id.
  • name (optional)
    A string to identify this formula
  • string (optional)
    A short description that will be displayed above the formula.
  • col (optional)
    The number of columns spanned by this tag (only makes sense inside a group). By default, 1.
  • widget (optional)
    A widget to format the value (like the widget attribute for fields). For example, monetary. By default, it is ‘float’.
  • help (optional)
    A help message to dipslay in a tooltip (equivalent of help for a field in python)
  • value_label (optional)
    A string put on the right of the formula value. For example, it can be useful to indicate the unit of measure of the formula value.
widget

Declares a specialized widget to be used to display the information. This is a mechanism similar to the widgets in the form view.

Admissible attributes are:

  • name (mandatory)
    A string to identify which widget should be instantiated. The view will look into the widget_registry to get the proper class.
  • col (optional)
    The number of columns spanned by this tag (only makes sense inside a group). By default, 1.

Cohort

The cohort view is used to display and understand the way some data changes over a period of time. For example, imagine that for a given business, clients can subscribe to some service. The cohort view can then display the total number of subscriptions each month, and study the rate at which client leave the service (churn). When clicking on a cell, the cohort view will redirect you to a new action in which you will only see the records contained in the cell’s time interval; this action contains a list view and a form view.

For example, here is a very simple cohort view:

<cohort string="Subscription" date_start="date_start" date_stop="date" interval="month"/>

The root element of the Cohort view is <cohort>, it accepts the following attributes:

  • string (mandatory)
    A title, which should describe the view
  • date_start (mandatory)
    A valid date or datetime field. This field is understood by the view as the beginning date of a record
  • date_stop (mandatory)
    A valid date or datetime field. This field is understood by the view as the end date of a record. This is the field that will determine the churn.
  • mode (optional)
    A string to describe the mode. It should be either ‘churn’ or ‘retention’ (default). Churn mode will start at 0% and accumulate over time whereas retention will start at 100% and decrease over time.
  • timeline (optional)
    A string to describe the timeline. It should be either ‘backward’ or ‘forward’ (default). Forward timeline will display data from date_start to date_stop, whereas backward timeline will display data from date_stop to date_start (when the date_start is in future / greater than date_stop).
  • interval (optional)
    A string to describe a time interval. It should be ‘day’, ‘week’, ‘month’’ (default) or ‘year’.
  • measure (optional)
    A field that can be aggregated. This field will be used to compute the values for each cell. If not set, the cohort view will count the number of occurrences.

Activity

The Activity view is used to display the activities linked to the records. The data are displayed in a chart with the records forming the rows and the activity types the columns. When clicking on a cell, a detailed description of all activities of the same type for the record is displayed.

For example, here is a very simple Activity view:

<activity string="Activities"/>

The root element of the Activity view is <activity>, it accepts the following attributes:

  • string (mandatory)
    A title, which should describe the view

Search defaults

Search fields and filters can be configured through the action’s context using search_default_name keys. For fields, the value should be the value to set in the field, for filters it’s a boolean value. For instance, assuming foo is a field and bar is a filter an action context of:

{
  'search_default_foo': 'acro',
  'search_default_bar': 1
}

will automatically enable the bar filter and search the foo field for acro.

QWeb

QWeb views are standard QWeb templates inside a view’s arch. They don’t have a specific root element.

A QWeb view can only contain a single template4, and the template’s name must match the view’s complete (including module name) external id.

template should be used as a shortcut to define QWeb views.

[1] for backwards compatibility reasons
[2] an extension function is added for simpler matching in QWeb views: hasclass(*classes) matches if the context node has all the specified classes
[3] for historical reasons, it has its origin in tree-type views later repurposed to a more table/list-type display
[4] or no template if it’s an inherited view, then it should only contain xpath elements