Views

Views are what define how records should be displayed to end-users. They are specified in XML which means that they can be edited independently from the models that they represent. They are flexible and allow a high level of customization of the screens that they control. There exist various types of views. Each of them represents a mode of visualization: form, list, kanban, etc.

Generic structure

Basic views generally share the common structure defined below. Placeholders are denoted in all caps.

<record id="MODEL_view_TYPE" model="ir.ui.view">
  <field name="name">NAME</field>
  <field name="model">MODEL</field>
  <field name="arch" type="xml">
    <VIEW_TYPE>
      <VIEW_SPECIFICATIONS/>
    </VIEW_TYPE>
  </field>
</record>

Fields

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

  • name (mandatory) Char

    Only useful as a mnemonic/description of the view when looking for one in a list of some sort.

  • model Char

    The model linked to the view, if applicable.

  • priority Integer

    When a view is requested by (model, type), the view matching the model and the type, with the lowest priority will be returned (it is the default view).

    It also defines the order of views application during view inheritance.

  • groups_id Many2many -> odoo.addons.base.models.res_users.Groups

    The groups allowed to use/access the current view.

    If the view extends an existing view, the extension will only be applied for a given user if the user has access to the provided groups_id.

  • arch Text

    The description of the view layout.

Attributes

The different view types have a wide variety of attributes allowing customizations of the generic behaviors. Some main attributes will be explained here. They do not all have an impact on all view types.

  • create

    Disable/enable record creation on the view.

  • edit (form & list & gantt)

    Disable/enable record edition on the view.

  • delete (form & list)

    Disable/enable record deletion on the view through the Action dropdown.

  • duplicate (form & list)

    Disable/enable record duplication on the view through the Action dropdown.

  • decoration-$ (list & gantt)

    Define a conditional display of a record in 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).

    <tree decoration-info="state == 'draft'"
  decoration-danger="state == 'help_needed'"
  decoration-bf="state='busy'">
  <TREE_VIEW_CONTENT>
</tree>

  • 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 Form, Kanban, List, …

    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

Inheritance fields

The two following View fields are used to specify inherited views.

  • inherit_id Many2one

    the current view’s parent view, unset by default

  • mode Selection: [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]

    inheritance mode, extension: by default if inherit_id is set, primary otherwise.

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 expression1 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
<xpath expr="page[@name='pg']/group[@name='gp']/field" position="inside">
  <field name="description"/>
</xpath>

<field name="res_id" position="after"/>

<div name="name" position="replace">
  <div name="name2">
    <field name="name2"/>
  </div>
</div>

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
<field name="sale_information" position="attributes">
  <attribute name="invisible">0</attribute>
  <attribute name="attrs">
    {'invisible': [('sale_ok', '=', False)], 'readonly': [('editable', '=', False)]}
  </attribute>
</field>
move

can be used as a direct child of a inheritance 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.

[1] an extension function is added for simpler matching in QWeb views: hasclass(*classes) matches if the context node has all the specified classes

View types

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. The first cell of each row displays a (customizable, see templates, quite similarly to Kanban) card representing the corresponding record. When clicking on others cells, a detailed description of all activities of the same type for the record is displayed.

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

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

Possible children of the view element are:

field

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

Possible attributes are:

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

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

The activity view uses mostly-standard javascript qweb and provides the following context variables (see Kanban for more details):

widget
the current ActivityRecord(), 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

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
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

Cohort

Enterprise feature

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.

Dashboard

Enterprise feature

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.

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.

Form

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.
confirm
confirmation message to display (and for the user to accept) before performing the button’s Odoo call (also works in Kanban views).
field

renders (and allow edition of, possibly) a single field of the current record. Using several times a field in a form view is supported and the fields can receive different values for modifiers ‘invisible’ and ‘readonly’. However, the behavior is not guaranteed when several fields exist with different values for modifier ‘required’. Possible attributes of the field node 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_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
kanban_view_ref
for opening specific kanban view when selecting records from m2o/m2m in mobile environment

Generic structure

<form>
  <sheet>
    <header>
      <field name="state"  widget="statusbar"/>
    </header>
    <div class="oe_button_box">
      <BUTTONS/>
    </div>
    <group>
      <group>
        <field name="fname"/>
      </group>
    </group>
    <notebook>
      <page string="Page1">
        <group>
          <CONTENT/>
        </group>
      </page>
      <page string="Page2">
        <group>
          <CONTENT/>
        </group>
      </page>
    </notebook>
  </sheet>
</form>

Gantt

Enterprise feature

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 (required)
name of the field providing the end duration of the event for each record.
color
name of the field used to color the pills according to its value
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 one of the following bootstrap contextual color (danger, info, secondary, success or warning).

default_group_by
name of a field to group tasks by
consolidation
field name to display consolidation value in record cell
consolidation_max
dictionnary 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 describes 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, plan

allows disabling the corresponding action in the view by setting the corresponding attribute to false.

  • create: If enabled, a “+” button will be displayed while hovering on a time slot to create a new record in that slot, and if
  • edit: If enabled, the opened records will be in edit mode (thus editable)
  • plan: If enabled and edit enabled, a “magnifying glass” button will be displayed on time slots to plan unassigned records into that time slot.
offset
Depending on the scale, the number of units to add to today to compute the default period. Examples: An offset of +1 in default_scale week will open the gantt view for next week, and an offset of -2 in default_scale month will open the gantt view of 2 months ago.
progress
name of a field providing the completion percentage for the record’s event, between 0 and 100
string
title of the gantt view
precision

JSON object specifying snapping precisions for the pills in each scale.

  • Possible values for scale day are (default: hour):

    hour: records times snap to full hours (ex: 7:12 becomes 8:00)

    hour:half: records times snap to half hours (ex: 7:12 becomes 7:30)

    hour:quarter: records times snap to half hours (ex: 7:12 becomes 7:15)

  • Possible values for scale week are (default: day:half):

    day: records times snap to full days (ex: 7:28 AM becomes 11:59:59 PM of the previous day, 10:32 PM becomes 12:00 PM of the current day)

    day:half: records times snap to half hours (ex: 7:28 AM becomes 12:00 PM)

  • Possible values for scale month are (default: day:half):

    day: records times snap to full days (ex: 7:28 AM becomes 11:59:59 PM of the previous day, 10:32 PM becomes 12:00 PM of the current day)

    day:half: records times snap to half hours (ex: 7:28 AM becomes 12:00 PM)

  • Scale year always snap to full day.

Example of precision attribute: {"day": "hour:quarter", "week": "day:half", "month": "day"}

total_row
boolean to control whether the row containing the total count of records should be displayed. (default: false)
collapse_first_level
boolean to control whether it is possible to collapse each row if grouped by one field. (default: false, the collapse starts when grouping by two fields)
display_unavailability
boolean to mark the dates returned by the gantt_unavailability function of the model as available inside the gantt view. Records can still be scheduled in them, but their unavailability is visually displayed. (default: false)
default_scale

default scale when rendering the view. Possible values are (default: month):

  • day
  • week
  • month
  • year
scales
comma-separated list of allowed scales for this view. By default, all scales are allowed. For possible scale values to use in this list, see default_scale.
templates

defines the QWeb template gantt-popover which is used when the user hovers over one of the records in the gantt view.

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

widget
the current GanttRow(), can be used to fetch some meta-information. The getColor method to convert in a color integer is also available directly in the template context without using widget.

on_create If specified when clicking the add button on the view, instead of opening a generic dialog, launch a client action. this should hold the xmlid of the action (eg: on_create="%(my_module.my_wizard)d"

form_view_id
view to open when the user create or edit a record. Note that if this attribute is not set, the gantt view will fall back to the id of the form view in the current action, if any.
thumbnails

This allows to display a thumbnail next to groups name if the group is a relationnal field. This expects a python dict which keys are the name of the field on the active model. Values are the names of the field holding the thumbnail on the related model.

Example: tasks have a field user_id that reference res.users. The res.users model has a field image that holds the avatar, then:

<gantt
   date_start="date_start"
   date_stop="date_stop"
   thumbnails="{'user_id': 'image_128'}"
 >
 </gantt>

will display the users avatars next to their names when grouped by user_id.

Graph

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.

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
examples
if set to a key in the KanbanExamplesRegistry, examples on column setups will be available in the grouped kanban view. Here is an example of how to define those setups.
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.
quick_create_view
form view reference, specifying the view used for records quick creation.
records_draggable

whether it should be possible to drag records when kanban is grouped. Default: true.

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”, “success” or “muted” 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)
context
the current context, coming from the action, and the one2many or many2many field in the case of a Kanban view embedded in a Form view
user_context
self-explanatory
read_only_mode
self-explanatory
selection_mode

set to true when kanban view is opened in mobile environment from m2o/m2m field for selecting records.

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 the widget attribute is specified, in which case their rendering and behavior depends on the corresponding widget. Possible values are (among others):

    handle
    for sequence (or integer) fields by which records are sorted, allows to drag&drop records to reorder them.

  • 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].

List

The root element of list views is <tree>2. 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

multi_edit
editable or not editable list can activate the multi-edition feature by defining the [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]
default_order

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

<tree default_order="sequence,name desc">
decoration-{$name}

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

{$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, duplicate, import, export_xlsx
allows disabling the corresponding action in the view by setting the corresponding attribute to false
limit
the default size of a page. It must be a positive integer
groups_limit
when the list view is grouped, the default number of groups of a page. It must be a position integer
expand
when the list view is grouped, automatically open the first level of groups if set to true (default: false)

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
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 (among others):

progressbar
displays float fields as a progress bar.
handle
for sequence (or integer) fields by which records are sorted, instead of displaying the field’s value just displays a drag&drop icon to reorder records.
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
width (for editable)
when there is no data in the list, the width of a column can be forced by setting this attribute. The value can be an absolute width (e.g. ‘100px’), or a relative weight (e.g. ‘3’, meaning that this column will be 3 times larger than the others). Note that when there are records in the list, we let the browser automatically adapt the column’s widths according to their content, and this attribute is thus ignored.
groupby

defines custom headers (with buttons) for the current view when grouping records on many2one fields. It is also possible to add [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference], inside the [UNKNOWN NODE title_reference] which can be used for modifiers. These fields thus belong on the many2one comodel. These extra fields will be fetched in batch.

name
the name of a many2one field (on the current model). Custom header will be displayed when grouping the view on this field name.
<groupby name="partner_id">
  <field name="name"/> <!-- name of partner_id -->
    <button type="edit" name"edit" string="Edit/>
    <button type="object" name="my_method" string="Button1"
      attrs="{'invisible': [('name', '=', 'Georges')]}"/>
</groupby>

A special button ([UNKNOWN NODE title_reference]) can be defined to open the many2one form view.

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>
[2] for historical reasons, it has its origin in tree-type views later repurposed to a more table/list-type display

Map

Enterprise feature

This view is able to display records on a map and the routes between them. The record are represented by pins. It also allows the visualization of fields from the model in a popup tied to the record’s pin.

Api

The view uses location data platforms’ api to fetch the tiles (the map’s background), do the geoforwarding (converting addresses to a set of coordinates) and fetch the routes. The view implements two api, the default one, openstreet map is able to fetch tiles and do geoforwarding. This api does not require a token. As soon as a valid MapBox token is provided in the general settings the view switches to the Mapbox api. This api is faster and allows the computation of routes. The token are available by signing up to MapBox

Structural components

The view’s root element is <map> multiple attributes are allowed

res_partner
Contains the res.partner many2one. If not provided the view will resort to create an empty map.
default_order
If a field is provided the view will override the model’s default order. The field must be part of the model on which the view is applied not from res.partner
routing
if true the routes between the records will be shown. The view still needs a valid MapBox token and at least two located records. (i.e the records has a res.partner many2one and the partner has a address or valid coordinates)

The only element allowed within the <map> element is the <marker-popup>. This element is able to contain multiple <field> elements. Each of these elements will be interpreted as a line in the marker’s popup. The field’s attributes are the following:

name
The field to display.
string
This string will be displayed before the field’s content. It Can be used as a description.

No attribute or element is mandatory but as stated above if no res.partner many2one is provided the view won’t be able to locate records.

For example here is a map:
<map res_partner="partner_id" default_order="date_begin" routing="true">
    <marker-popup>
        <field name="name" string="Task: "/>
    </marker-popup>
</map>

Pivot

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>

QWeb

QWeb views are standard QWeb templates inside a view’s arch. They don’t have a specific root element. Because QWeb views don’t have a specific root element, their type must be specified explicitly (it can not be inferred from the root element of the arch field).

QWeb views have two use cases:

  • they can be used as frontend templates, in which case template should be used as a shortcut.
  • they can be used as actual qweb views (opened inside an action), in which case they should be defined as regular view with an explicit type (it can not be inferred) and a model.

The main additions of qweb-as-view to the basic qweb-as-template are:

  • qweb-as-view has a special case for a <nav> element bearing the CSS class o_qweb_cp_buttons: its contents should be buttons and will be extracted and moved to the control panel’s button area, the <nav> itself will be removed, this is a work-around to control panel views not existing yet

  • qweb-as-view rendering adds several items to the standard qweb rendering context:

    model
    the model to which the qweb view is bound
    domain
    the domain provided by the search view
    context
    the context provided by the search view
    records
    a lazy proxy to model.search(domain), this can be used if you just want to iterate the records and not perform more complex operations (e.g. grouping)

  • qweb-as-view also provides additional rendering hooks:

    • _qweb_prepare_context(view_id, domain) prepares the rendering context specific to qweb-as-view
    • qweb_render_view(view_id, domain) is the method called by the client and will call the context-preparation methods and ultimately env['ir.qweb'].render().

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 or a number. 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.

A numeric value (between 1 and 99) can be used to describe the order of default groupbys. For instance if foo and bar refer to two groupbys

{
  'search_default_foo': 2,
  'search_default_bar': 1
}

has the effect to activate first bar then foo.