ORM API

Object Relational Mapping module:
  • Hierarchical structure
  • Constraints consistency and validation
  • Object metadata depends on its status
  • Optimised processing by complex query (multiple actions at once)
  • Default field values
  • Permissions optimisation
  • Persistent object: DB postgresql
  • Data conversion
  • Multi-level caching system
  • Two different inheritance mechanisms
  • Rich set of field types:
    • classical (varchar, integer, boolean, …)
    • relational (one2many, many2one, many2many)
    • functional

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="Field Label")

For the list of field types and parameters, see the fields reference.

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

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

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

def _default_name(self):
    return self.get_value()

name = fields.Char(default=lambda self: self._default_name())

API

class odoo.models.BaseModel[source]

Base class for Odoo models.

Odoo models are created by inheriting one of the following:

  • Model for regular database-persisted models
  • TransientModel for temporary data, stored in the database but automatically vacuumed every so often
  • AbstractModel for abstract super classes meant to be shared by multiple inheriting models

The system automatically instantiates every model once per database. Those instances represent the available models on each database, and depend on which modules are installed on that database. The actual class of each instance is built from the Python classes that create and inherit from the corresponding model.

Every model instance is a “recordset”, i.e., an ordered collection of records of the model. Recordsets are returned by methods like browse(), search(), or field accesses. Records have no explicit representation: a record is represented as a recordset of one record.

To create a class that should not be instantiated, the _register attribute may be set to False.

_auto = False

Whether a database table should be created (default: True). If set to False, override init() to create the database table.

_table = None

SQL table name used by model if _auto

_sequence = None

SQL sequence to use for ID field

_sql_constraints = []

SQL constraints [(name, sql_def, message)]

_register = True

not visible in ORM registry

_name = None

the model name (in dot-notation, module namespace)

_description = None

the model’s informal name

_inherit = None

Python-inherited models:

Type
str or list(str)
_inherits = {}

dictionary {‘parent_model’: ‘m2o_field’} 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 inherited models but stores none of them: the values themselves remain stored on the linked record.

_rec_name = None

field to use for labeling records, default: name

_order = 'id'

default order field for searching results

_check_company_auto = False

On write and create, call _check_company to ensure companies consistency on the relational fields having check_company=True as attribute.

_parent_name = 'parent_id'

the many2one field used as parent field

_parent_store = False

set to True to compute parent_path field.

Alongside a parent_path field, sets up an indexed storage of the tree structure of records, to enable faster hierarchical queries on the records of the current model using the child_of and parent_of domain operators.

_abstract = True

whether model is abstract

_transient = False

whether model is transient

_date_name = 'date'

field to use for default calendar view

_fold_name = 'fold'

field to determine folded groups in kanban views

AbstractModel

odoo.models.AbstractModel[source]

alias of odoo.models.BaseModel

Model

class odoo.models.Model[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).

TransientModel

class odoo.models.TransientModel[source]

Model super-class for transient records, meant to be temporarily persistent, and regularly vacuum-cleaned.

A TransientModel has a simplified access rights management, all users can create new records, and may only access the records they created. The superuser has unrestricted access to all TransientModel records.

Fields

class odoo.fields.Field[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 (str) – the label of the field seen by users; if not set, the ORM takes the field name in the class (capitalized).
  • help (str) – the tooltip of the field seen by users
  • readonly (bool) –

    whether the field is readonly (default: False)

    This only has an impact on the UI. Any field assignation in code will work (if the field is a stored field or an inversable one).

  • required (bool) – whether the value of the field is required (default: False)
  • index (bool) – whether the field is indexed in database. Note: no effect on non-stored and virtual fields. (default: False)
  • default (value or callable) – 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 (dict) –

    a dictionary mapping state values to lists of UI attribute-value pairs; possible attributes are: readonly, required, invisible.

  • groups (str) – comma-separated list of group xml ids (string); this restricts the field access to the users of the given groups only
  • company_dependent (bool) –

    whether the field value is dependent of the current company;

    The value isn’t stored on the model table. It is registered as [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]. When the value of the company_dependent field is needed, an [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] is searched, linked to the current company (and current record if one property exists).

    If the value is changed on the record, it either modifies the existing property for the current record (if one exists), or creates a new one for the current company and res_id.

    If the value is changed on the company side, it will impact all records on which the value hasn’t been changed.

  • 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)
  • store (bool) – whether the field is stored in database (default:True, False for computed fields)
  • group_operator (str) –

    aggregate function used by read_group() when grouping on this field.

    Supported aggregate functions are:

    • array_agg : values, including nulls, concatenated into an array
    • count : number of rows
    • count_distinct : number of distinct rows
    • bool_and : true if all values are true, otherwise false
    • bool_or : true if at least one value is true, otherwise false
    • max : maximum value of all values
    • min : minimum value of all values
    • avg : the average (arithmetic mean) of all values
    • sum : sum of all values
  • group_expand (str) –

    function used to expand read_group results when grouping on the current field.

    @api.model
def _read_group_selection_field(self, values, domain, order):
    return ['choice1', 'choice2', ...] # available selection choices.

@api.model
def _read_group_many2one_field(self, records, domain, order):
    return records + self.search([custom_domain])

Computed Fields

Parameters
  • compute (str) –

    name of a method that computes the field

  • compute_sudo (bool) – whether the field should be recomputed as superuser to bypass access rights (by default True for stored fields, False for non stored fields)
  • inverse (str) – name of a method that inverses the field (optional)
  • search (str) – name of a method that implement search on the field (optional)
  • related (str) –

    sequence of field names

Basic Fields

class odoo.fields.Boolean[source]

Encapsulates a bool.

class odoo.fields.Char[source]

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
  • trim (bool) – states whether the value is trimmed or not (by default, True). Note that the trim operation is applied only by the web client.
  • translate (bool or callable) – 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.Float[source]

Encapsulates a float.

The precision digits are given by the (optional) digits attribute.

Parameters
digits (tuple(int,int) or str) – a pair (total, decimal) or a string referencing a DecimalPrecision record name.
class odoo.fields.Integer[source]

Encapsulates an int.

Advanced Fields

class odoo.fields.Binary[source]

Encapsulates a binary content (e.g. a file).

Parameters
attachment (bool) – whether the field should be stored as [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] or in a column of the model’s table (default: True).
class odoo.fields.Html[source]

Encapsulates an html code content.

Parameters
  • sanitize (bool) – whether value must be sanitized (default: True)
  • sanitize_tags (bool) – whether to sanitize tags (only a white list of attributes is accepted, default: True)
  • sanitize_attributes (bool) – whether to sanitize attributes (only a white list of attributes is accepted, default: True)
  • sanitize_style (bool) – whether to sanitize style attributes (default: True)
  • strip_style (bool) – whether to strip style attributes (removed and therefore not sanitized, default: False)
  • strip_classes (bool) – whether to strip classes attributes (default: False)
class odoo.fields.Image[source]

Encapsulates an image, extending Binary.

Parameters
  • max_width (int) – the maximum width of the image
  • max_height (int) – the maximum height of the image
  • verify_resolution (bool) – whether the image resolution should be verified to ensure it doesn’t go over the maximum image resolution (default: True). See odoo.tools.image.ImageProcess for maximum image resolution (default: 45e6).
class odoo.fields.Monetary[source]

Encapsulates a float expressed in a given res_currency.

The decimal precision and currency symbol are taken from the currency_field attribute.

Parameters
currency_field (str) – name of the Many2one field holding the res_currency this monetary field is expressed in (default: [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference])
class odoo.fields.Selection[source]

Encapsulates an exclusive choice between different values.

Parameters
  • selection (list(tuple(str,str)) or callable or str) – specifies the possible values for this field. It is given as either a list of pairs (value, label), or a model method, or a method name.
  • selection_add (list(tuple(str,str))) –

    provides an extension of the selection in the case of an overridden field. It is a list of pairs (value, label) or singletons (value,), where singleton values must appear in the overridden selection. The new values are inserted in an order that is consistent with the overridden selection and this list:

    selection = [('a', 'A'), ('b', 'B')]
selection_add = [('c', 'C'), ('b',)]
> result = [('a', 'A'), ('c', 'C'), ('b', 'B')]

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

class odoo.fields.Text[source]

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

Parameters
translate (bool or callable) – 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.

Date(time) Fields

Dates and Datetimes are very important fields in any kind of business application. Their misuse can create invisible yet painful bugs, this section aims to provide Odoo developers with the knowledge required to avoid misusing these fields.

When assigning a value to a Date/Datetime field, the following options are valid:

  • A [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] or [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] object.

  • A string in the proper server format:

    • YYYY-MM-DD for Date fields,
    • YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS for Datetime fields.
  • [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] or [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference].

The Date and Datetime fields class have helper methods to attempt conversion into a compatible type:

Date / Datetime comparison best practices:

  • Date fields can only be compared to date objects.
  • Datetime fields can only be compared to datetime objects.

Common operations with dates and datetimes such as addition, substraction or fetching the start/end of a period are exposed through both Date and Datetime. These helpers are also available by importing [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference].

class odoo.fields.Date[source]

Encapsulates a python date object.

static add(value, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Return the sum of value and a relativedelta.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.
  • kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.
Returns
the resulting date/datetime.
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.

Parameters
  • record – recordset from which the timezone will be obtained.
  • 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
date
static end_of(value, granularity)[source]

Get end of a time period from a date or a datetime.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • granularity – Type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.
Returns
A date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.
static start_of(value, granularity)[source]

Get start of a time period from a date or a datetime.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • granularity – type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.
Returns
a date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.
static subtract(value, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Return the difference between value and a relativedelta.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.
  • kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.
Returns
the resulting date/datetime.
static to_date(value)[source]

Attempt to convert value to a date object.

Parameters
value (str or date or datetime) – value to convert.
Returns
an object representing value.
Return type
date or None
static to_string(value)[source]

Convert a date or datetime object to a string.

Parameters
value – value to convert.
Returns
a string representing value in the server’s date format, if value is of type datetime, the hours, minute, seconds, tzinfo will be truncated.
Return type
str
static today(*args)[source]

Return the current day in the format expected by the ORM.

class odoo.fields.Datetime[source]

Encapsulates a python datetime object.

static add(value, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Return the sum of value and a relativedelta.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.
  • kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.
Returns
the resulting date/datetime.
static context_timestamp(record, timestamp)[source]

Return the given timestamp converted to the client’s timezone.

Parameters
  • record – recordset from which the timezone will be obtained.
  • timestamp (datetime) – naive datetime value (expressed in UTC) to be converted to the client timezone.
Returns
timestamp converted to timezone-aware datetime in context timezone.
Return type
datetime
static end_of(value, granularity)[source]

Get end of a time period from a date or a datetime.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • granularity – Type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.
Returns
A date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.
static now(*args)[source]

Return the current day and time in the format expected by the ORM.

static start_of(value, granularity)[source]

Get start of a time period from a date or a datetime.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • granularity – type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.
Returns
a date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.
static subtract(value, *args, **kwargs)[source]

Return the difference between value and a relativedelta.

Parameters
  • value – initial date or datetime.
  • args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.
  • kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.
Returns
the resulting date/datetime.
static to_datetime(value)[source]

Convert an ORM value into a datetime value.

Parameters
value (str or date or datetime) – value to convert.
Returns
an object representing value.
Return type
datetime or None
static to_string(value)[source]

Convert a datetime or date object to a string.

Parameters
value (datetime or date) – value to convert.
Returns
a string representing value in the server’s datetime format, if value is of type date, the time portion will be midnight (00:00:00).
Return type
str
static today(*args)[source]

Return the current day, at midnight (00:00:00).

Relational Fields

class odoo.fields.Many2one[source]

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

Parameters
  • comodel_name (str) – name of the target model Mandatory except for related or extended fields.
  • domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)
  • context (dict) – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field
  • ondelete (str) – what to do when the referred record is deleted; possible values are: 'set null', 'restrict', 'cascade'
  • auto_join (bool) – whether JOINs are generated upon search through that field (default: False)
  • delegate (bool) – set it to True to make fields of the target model accessible from the current model (corresponds to _inherits)
  • check_company (bool) – Mark the field to be verified in _check_company(). Add a default company domain depending on the field attributes.
class odoo.fields.One2many[source]

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

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

class odoo.fields.Many2many[source]

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

Parameters
  • comodel_name – name of the target model (string) mandatory except in the case of related or extended fields
  • relation (str) – optional name of the table that stores the relation in the database
  • column1 (str) – optional name of the column referring to “these” records in the table relation
  • column2 (str) – optional name of the column referring to “those” records in the table relation

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!

Note that having several fields with implicit relation parameters on a given model with the same comodel is not accepted by the ORM, since those field would use the same table. The ORM prevents two many2many fields to use the same relation parameters, except if

  • both fields use the same model, comodel, and relation parameters are explicit; or
  • at least one field belongs to a model with _auto = False.
Parameters
  • domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)
  • context (dict) – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field
  • check_company (bool) – Mark the field to be verified in _check_company(). Add a default company domain depending on the field attributes.
  • limit (int) – optional limit to use upon read

Pseudo-relational fields

class odoo.fields.Reference[source]

Pseudo-relational field (no FK in database).

The field value is stored as a string following the pattern "res_model.res_id" in database.

class odoo.fields.Many2oneReference[source]

Pseudo-relational field (no FK in database).

The field value is stored as an integer id in database.

Contrary to Reference fields, the model has to be specified in a Char field, whose name has to be specified in the [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] attribute for the current Many2oneReference field.

Parameters
model_field (str) – name of the Char where the model name is stored.

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 Search 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)]

    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.

  • Computed fields are readonly by default. 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')

@api.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

Automatic fields

odoo.fields.id

Identifier field

If length of current recordset is 1, return id of unique record in it.

Raise an Error otherwise.

odoo.fields.create_date

Datetime

odoo.fields.create_uid

Many2one

odoo.fields.write_date

Datetime

odoo.fields.write_uid

Many2one

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:

odoo.fields.name

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

Char

odoo.fields.active

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

Boolean

odoo.fields.state

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

Selection

odoo.fields.parent_id

default_value of _parent_name, used to organize records in a tree structure and enables the child_of and parent_of operators in domains.

Many2one

odoo.fields.parent_path

When _parent_store is set to True, used to store a value reflecting the tree structure of _parent_name, and to optimize the operators child_of and parent_of in search domains. It must be declared with index=True for proper operation.

Char

odoo.fields.company_id

Main field name used for Odoo multi-company behavior.

Used by [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] to check multi company consistency. Defines whether a record is shared between companies (no value) or only accessible by the users of a given company.

Many2one :type: res_company

Recordsets

Interactions with models and records are performed through recordsets, an ordered collection 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 anything 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.

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

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

Method decorators

The Odoo API module defines Odoo Environments and method decorators.

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.depends('partner_id.name', 'partner_id.is_company')
def _compute_pname(self):
    for record in self:
        if record.partner_id.is_company:
            record.pname = (record.partner_id.name or "").upper()
        else:
            record.pname = record.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.depends_context(*args)[source]

Return a decorator that specifies the context dependencies of a non-stored “compute” method. Each argument is a key in the context’s dictionary:

price = fields.Float(compute='_compute_product_price')

@api.depends_context('pricelist')
def _compute_product_price(self):
    for product in self:
        if product.env.context.get('pricelist'):
            pricelist = self.env['product.pricelist'].browse(product.env.context['pricelist'])
        else:
            pricelist = self.env['product.pricelist'].get_default_pricelist()
        product.price = pricelist.get_products_price(product).get(product.id, 0.0)

All dependencies must be hashable. The following keys have special support:

  • [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] (value in context or current company id),
  • [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] (current user id and superuser flag),
  • [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] (value in env.context or value in field.context).
odoo.api.constrains(*args)[source]

Decorate a constraint checker.

Each argument must be a field name used in the check:

@api.constrains('name', 'description')
def _check_description(self):
    for record in self:
        if record.name == record.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.

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.

Each argument must be a field name:

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

return {
    'domain': {'other_id': [('partner_id', '=', partner_id)]},
    'warning': {'title': "Warning", 'message': "What is this?", 'type': 'notification'},
}

If the type is set to notification, the warning will be displayed in a notification. Otherwise it will be displayed in a dialog as default.

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.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):
    ...
odoo.api.model_create_multi(method)[source]

Decorate a method that takes a list of dictionaries and creates multiple records. The method may be called with either a single dict or a list of dicts:

record = model.create(vals)
records = model.create([vals, ...])

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)
  • the superuser flag (su)
  • 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)
Environment.ref(xml_id, raise_if_not_found=True)[source]

Return the record corresponding to the given xml_id.

Environment.lang

Return the current language code.

Return type
str
Environment.user

Return the current user (as an instance).

Return type
res_users
Environment.company

Return the current company (as an instance).

If not specified in the context ([UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]), fallback on current user main company.

Raises
AccessError – invalid or unauthorized [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] context key content.
Returns
current company (default=`self.user.company_id`)
Return type
res.company
Environment.companies

Return a recordset of the enabled companies by the user.

If not specified in the context([UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]), fallback on current user companies.

Raises
AccessError – invalid or unauthorized [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] context key content.
Returns
current companies (default=`self.user.company_ids`)
Return type
res.company

Altering the environment

Model.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}
Model.with_user(user)[source]

Return a new version of this recordset attached to the given user, in non-superuser mode, unless [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] is the superuser (by convention, the superuser is always in superuser mode.)

Model.with_env(env)[source]

Return a new version of this recordset attached to the provided environment.

Parameters
env (Environment) –
Model.sudo([flag=True])[source]

Returns a new version of this recordset with superuser mode enabled or disabled, depending on [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]. The superuser mode does not change the current user, and simply bypasses access rights checks.

SQL Execution

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).

Model.invalidate_cache(fnames=None, ids=None)[source]

Invalidate the record caches after some records have been modified. If both fnames and ids are None, the whole cache is cleared.

Parameters
  • fnames – the list of modified fields, or None for all fields
  • ids – the list of modified record ids, or None for all

Common ORM methods

Create/update

Model.create(vals_list) → records[source]

Creates new records for the model.

The new records are initialized using the values from the list of dicts vals_list, and if necessary those from default_get().

Parameters
vals_list (list) –

values for the model’s fields, as a list of dictionaries:

[{'field_name': field_value, ...}, ...]

For backward compatibility, vals_list may be a dictionary. It is treated as a singleton list [vals], and a single record is returned.

see write() for details

Returns
the created records
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
  • ValidationError – 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)
Model.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
Model.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.
Model.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
Model.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
  • ValidationError – 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, 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, 0)
    removes the record of id id from the set, then deletes it (from the database). Can not be used in create().
    (3, id, 0)
    removes the record of id id from the set, but does not delete it. Can not be used in create().
    (4, id, 0)
    adds an existing record of id id to the set.
    (5, 0, 0)
    removes all records from the set, equivalent to using the command 3 on every record explicitly. Can not be used in create().
    (6, 0, 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.
Model.flush(fnames=None, records=None)[source]

Process all the pending recomputations (or at least the given field names [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] if present) and flush the pending updates to the database.

Search/Read

Model.browse([ids]) → records[source]

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

self.browse([7, 18, 12])
res.partner(7, 18, 12)
Parameters
ids (int or list(int) or None) – id(s)
Returns
recordset
Model.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.
Model.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.
Model.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
Model.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) – A search domain. Use an empty list to match all records.
  • fields (list) – list of fields present in the list view specified on the object. Each element is either ‘field’ (field name, using the default aggregation), or ‘field:agg’ (aggregate field with aggregation function ‘agg’), or ‘name:agg(field)’ (aggregate field with ‘agg’ and return it as ‘name’). The possible aggregation functions are the ones provided by PostgreSQL (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-aggregate.html) and ‘count_distinct’, with the expected meaning.
  • 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

Fields/Views

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

Return the definition of each field.

The returned value is a dictionary (indexed 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
Model.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 (int) – id of the view or None
  • view_type (str) – type of the view to return if view_id is None (‘form’, ‘tree’, …)
  • toolbar (bool) – true to include contextual actions
  • submenu – deprecated
Returns
composition of the requested view (including inherited views and extensions)
Return type
dict
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

Search 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 (value can be either one item or a list of items).

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

    parent_of

    is a parent (ascendant) of a value record (value can be either one item or a list of items).

    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.

Record(set) information

Model.ids

Return the list of actual record ids corresponding to self.

odoo.models.env

Returns the environment of the given recordset.

Type
Environment
Model.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.

Model.ensure_one()[source]

Verify that the current recorset holds a single record.

Raises
odoo.exceptions.ValueError – len(self) != 1
Model.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)
Model.get_metadata()[source]

Return some metadata about the given records.

Returns
list of ownership dictionaries for each requested record
Return type

list of dictionaries with the following keys:

  • id: object id
  • create_uid: user who created the record
  • create_date: date when the record was created
  • write_uid: last user who changed the record
  • write_date: date of the last change to the record
  • xmlid: XML ID to use to refer to this record (if there is one), in format module.name
  • noupdate: A boolean telling if the record will be updated or not

Operations

Recordsets are immutable, but sets of the same model can be combined using various set operations, returning new recordsets.

  • 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

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 the following operations returning recordsets themselves (when possible):

Filter

Model.filtered(func)[source]

Return the records in self satisfying func.

Parameters
func (callable or str) – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names
Returns
recordset of records satisfying func, may be empty.
# 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")
Model.filtered_domain(domain)[source]

Map

Model.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 (callable or str) – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names
Returns
self if func is falsy, result of func applied to all self records.
Return type
list or recordset
# 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
records.mapped('partner_id')

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

Sort

Model.sorted(key=None, reverse=False)[source]

Return the recordset self ordered by key.

Parameters
  • key (callable or str or None) – 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 (bool) – if True, return the result in reverse order
# sort records by name
records.sorted(key=lambda r: r.name)

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'
    _description = 'Inheritance Zero'

    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'
    _description = 'Inheritance One'

    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):

class Extension0(models.Model):
    _name = 'extension.0'
    _description = 'Extension zero'

    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.

The main difference is in the meaning. When using Delegation, the model has one instead of is one, turning the relationship in a composition instead of inheritance:


class Screen(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.screen'
    _description = 'Screen'

    size = fields.Float(string='Screen Size in inches')

class Keyboard(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.keyboard'
    _description = 'Keyboard'

    layout = fields.Char(string='Layout')

class Laptop(models.Model):
    _name = 'delegation.laptop'
    _description = 'Laptop'

    _inherits = {
        'delegation.screen': 'screen_id',
        'delegation.keyboard': 'keyboard_id',
    }

    name = fields.Char(string='Name')
    maker = fields.Char(string='Maker')

    # a Laptop has a screen
    screen_id = fields.Many2one('delegation.screen', required=True, ondelete="cascade")
    # a Laptop has a keyboard
    keyboard_id = fields.Many2one('delegation.keyboard', required=True, ondelete="cascade")

        record = env['delegation.laptop'].create({
            'screen_id': env['delegation.screen'].create({'size': 13.0}).id,
            'keyboard_id': env['delegation.keyboard'].create({'layout': 'QWERTY'}).id,
        })
            record.size
            record.layout

will result in:

            13.0
            'QWERTY'

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

        record.write({'size': 14.0})

Fields Incremental Definition

A field is defined as class attribute on a model class. If the model is extended, 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")

Error management

The Odoo Exceptions module defines a few core exception types.

Those types are understood by the RPC layer. Any other exception type bubbling until the RPC layer will be treated as a ‘Server error’.

exception odoo.exceptions.AccessDenied(message='Access denied')[source]

Login/password error.

exception odoo.exceptions.AccessError(msg)[source]

Access rights error.

exception odoo.exceptions.CacheMiss(record, field)[source]

Missing value(s) in cache.

exception odoo.exceptions.MissingError(msg)[source]

Missing record(s).

exception odoo.exceptions.RedirectWarning[source]

Warning with a possibility to redirect the user instead of simply displaying the warning message.

Parameters
  • action_id (int) – id of the action where to perform the redirection
  • button_text (str) – text to put on the button that will trigger the redirection.
exception odoo.exceptions.UserError(msg)[source]

Generic error managed by the client.

Typically when the user tries to do something that has no sense given the current state of a record.

exception odoo.exceptions.ValidationError(msg)[source]

Violation of python constraints.