Javascript Reference¶

This document presents the Odoo Javascript framework. This framework is not a large application in term of lines of code, but it is quite generic, because it is basically a machine to turn a declarative interface description into a live application, able to interact with every model and records in the database. It is even possible to use the web client to modify the interface of the web client.

Overview¶

The Javascript framework is designed to work with three main use cases:

the web client: this is the private web application, where one can view and edit business data. This is a single page application (the page is never reloaded, only the new data is fetched from the server whenever it is needed)
the website: this is the public part of Odoo. It allows an unidentified user to browse some content, to shop or to perform many actions, as a client. This is a classical website: various routes with controllers and some javascript to make it work.
the point of sale: this is the interface for the point of sale. It is a specialized single page application.

Some javascript code is common to these three use cases, and is bundled together (see below in the assets section). This document will focus mostly on the web client design.

Web client¶

Single Page Application¶

In short, the webClient, instance of WebClient is the root component of the whole user interface. Its responsibility is to orchestrate all various subcomponents, and to provide services, such as rpcs, local storage and more.

In runtime, the web client is a single page application. It does not need to request a full page from the server each time the user perform an action. Instead, it only requests what it needs, and then replaces/updates the view. Also, it manages the url: it is kept in sync with the web client state.

It means that while a user is working on Odoo, the web client class (and the action manager) actually creates and destroys many sub components. The state is highly dynamic, and each widget could be destroyed at any time.

Overview of web client JS code¶

Here, we give a very quick overview on the web client code, in the web/static/src/js addon. Note that it is deliberately not exhaustive. We only cover the most important files/folders.

boot.js: this is the file that defines the module system. It needs to be loaded first.
core/: this is a collection of lower level building blocks. Notably, it contains the class system, the widget system, concurrency utilities, and many other class/functions.
chrome/: in this folder, we have most large widgets which make up most of the user interface.
chrome/abstract_web_client.js and chrome/web_client.js: together, these files define the WebClient widget, which is the root widget for the web client.
chrome/action_manager.js: this is the code that will convert an action into a widget (for example a kanban or a form view)
chrome/search_X.js all these files define the search view (it is not a view in the point of view of the web client, only from the server point of view)
fields: all main view field widgets are defined here
views: this is where the views are located

What to do if a file is not loaded/updated¶

There are many different reasons why a file may not be properly loaded. Here are a few things you can try to solve the issue:

once the server is started, it does not know if an asset file has been modified. So, you can simply restart the server to regenerate the assets.
check the console (in the dev tools, usually opened with F12) to make sure there are no obvious errors
try to add a console.log() at the beginning of your file (before any module definition), so you can see if a file has been loaded or not
when in any debug mode, there is an option in the debug manager menu (bug icon) to force the server to update its assets files.
use the debug=assets mode. This will actually bypass the asset bundles (note that it does not actually solve the issue. The server still uses outdated bundles)
finally, the most convenient way to do it, for a developer, is to start the server with the –dev=all option. This activates the file watcher options, which will automatically invalidate assets when necessary. Note that it does not work very well if the OS is Windows.
remember to refresh your page!
or maybe to save your code file…

Note

Once an asset file has been recreated, you need to refresh the page, to reload the proper files (if that does not work, the files may be cached).

Loading Javascript Code¶

Large applications are usually broken up into smaller files, that need to be connected together. Some file may need to use some part of code defined in another file. There are two ways of sharing code between files:

use the global scope (the window object) to write/read references to some objects or functions,
use a module system that will provide a way for each modules to export or import values, and will make sure that they are loaded in a proper order.

While it’s possible to work in the global scope, this has a number of issues:

It is difficult to ensure that implementation details are not exposed by work done in the global scope directly.

Dependencies are implicit, leading to fragile and unreliable load ordering.
The lack of insight into execution means it’s impossible to use various optimisations (e.g. deferred and asynchronous loading).
Module systems help resolve these issues: because modules specify their dependencies the module system can ensure the necessary order of loading is respected, and because modules can precisely specify their exports it is less likely that they will leak implementation details.

For most Odoo code, we want to use a module system. Because of the way assets work in Odoo (and in particular, the fact that each installed odoo addon can modify the list of files contained in a bundle), Odoo has to resolve modules browser side. To do that, Odoo provides a small module system described just below (see Odoo Module System).

However, Odoo also provides support for native javascript modules (see Native Javascript Modules). These modules will simply be translated by the server into odoo modules. It is encouraged to write all javascript code as a native module, for a better IDE integration. In the future, the Odoo module system should be considered an implementation detail, not the primary way to write javascript code.

Note

Native javascript modules are the primary way to define javascript code.

Class System¶

Odoo was developed before ECMAScript 6 classes were available. In Ecmascript 5, the standard way to define a class is to define a function and to add methods on its prototype object. This is fine, but it is slightly complex when we want to use inheritance, mixins.

For these reasons, Odoo decided to use its own class system, inspired by John Resig. The base Class is located in web.Class, in the file class.js.

Note

Note that the custom class system should be avoided for creating new code. It will be deprecated at some point, and then removed. New classes should use the standard ES6 class system.

Creating a subclass¶

Let us discuss how classes are created. The main mechanism is to use the extend method (this is more or less the equivalent of extend in ES6 classes).

var Class = require('web.Class');

var Animal = Class.extend({
    init: function () {
        this.x = 0;
        this.hunger = 0;
    },
    move: function () {
        this.x = this.x + 1;
        this.hunger = this.hunger + 1;
    },
    eat: function () {
        this.hunger = 0;
    },
});

In this example, the init function is the constructor. It will be called when an instance is created. Making an instance is done by using the new keyword.

Inheritance¶

It is convenient to be able to inherit an existing class. This is simply done by using the extend method on the superclass. When a method is called, the framework will secretly rebind a special method: _super to the currently called method. This allows us to use this._super whenever we need to call a parent method.

var Animal = require('web.Animal');

var Dog = Animal.extend({
    move: function () {
        this.bark();
        this._super.apply(this, arguments);
    },
    bark: function () {
        console.log('woof');
    },
});

var dog = new Dog();
dog.move()

Mixins¶

The odoo Class system does not support multiple inheritance, but for those cases when we need to share some behaviour, we have a mixin system: the extend method can actually take an arbitrary number of arguments, and will combine all of them in the new class.

var Animal = require('web.Animal');
var DanceMixin = {
    dance: function () {
        console.log('dancing...');
    },
};

var Hamster = Animal.extend(DanceMixin, {
    sleep: function () {
        console.log('sleeping');
    },
});

In this example, the Hamster class is a subclass of Animal, but it also mix the DanceMixin in.

Patching an existing class¶

It is not common, but we sometimes need to modify another class in place. The goal is to have a mechanism to change a class and all future/present instances. This is done by using the include method:

var Hamster = require('web.Hamster');

Hamster.include({
    sleep: function () {
        this._super.apply(this, arguments);
        console.log('zzzz');
    },
});

This is obviously a dangerous operation and should be done with care. But with the way Odoo is structured, it is sometimes necessary in one addon to modify the behavior of a widget/class defined in another addon. Note that it will modify all instances of the class, even if they have already been created.

Widgets¶

The Widget class is really an important building block of the user interface. Pretty much everything in the user interface is under the control of a widget. The Widget class is defined in the module web.Widget, in widget.js.

In short, the features provided by the Widget class include:

parent/child relationships between widgets (PropertiesMixin)
extensive lifecycle management with safety features (e.g. automatically destroying children widgets during the destruction of a parent)
automatic rendering with qweb
various utility functions to help interacting with the outside environment.

Here is an example of a basic counter widget:

var Widget = require('web.Widget');

var Counter = Widget.extend({
    template: 'some.template',
    events: {
        'click button': '_onClick',
    },
    init: function (parent, value) {
        this._super(parent);
        this.count = value;
    },
    _onClick: function () {
        this.count++;
        this.$('.val').text(this.count);
    },
});

For this example, assume that the template some.template (and is properly loaded: the template is in a file, which is properly defined in the assets of the module manifest, see assets.) is given by:

<div t-name="some.template">
    <span class="val"><t t-esc="widget.count"/></span>
    <button>Increment</button>
</div>

This example widget can be used in the following manner:

// Create the instance
var counter = new Counter(this, 4);
// Render and insert into DOM
counter.appendTo(".some-div");

This example illustrates a few of the features of the Widget class, including the event system, the template system, the constructor with the initial parent argument.

Widget Lifecycle¶

Like many component systems, the widget class has a well defined lifecycle. The usual lifecycle is the following: init is called, then willStart, then the rendering takes place, then start and finally destroy.

Widget.init(parent)¶

this is the constructor. The init method is supposed to initialize the base state of the widget. It is synchronous and can be overridden to take more parameters from the widget’s creator/parent

Arguments

parent (Widget()) – the new widget’s parent, used to handle automatic destruction and event propagation. Can be null for the widget to have no parent.

Widget.willStart()¶: this method will be called once by the framework when a widget is created and in the process of being appended to the DOM. The willStart method is a hook that should return a promise. The JS framework will wait for this promise to complete before moving on to the rendering step. Note that at this point, the widget does not have a DOM root element. The willStart hook is mostly useful to perform some asynchronous work, such as fetching data from the server

[Rendering]()¶: This step is automatically done by the framework. What happens is that the framework checks if a template key is defined on the widget. If that is the case, then it will render that template with the widget key bound to the widget in the rendering context (see the example above: we use widget.count in the QWeb template to read the value from the widget). If no template is defined, we read the tagName key and create a corresponding DOM element. When the rendering is done, we set the result as the $el property of the widget. After this, we automatically bind all events in the events and custom_events keys.

Widget.start()¶

when the rendering is complete, the framework will automatically call the start method. This is useful to perform some specialized post-rendering work. For example, setting up a library.

Must return a promise to indicate when its work is done.

Returns: promise

Widget.destroy()¶

This is always the final step in the life of a widget. When a widget is destroyed, we basically perform all necessary cleanup operations: removing the widget from the component tree, unbinding all events, …

Automatically called when the widget’s parent is destroyed, must be called explicitly if the widget has no parent or if it is removed but its parent remains.

Note that the willStart and start method are not necessarily called. A widget can be created (the init method will be called) and then destroyed (destroy method) without ever having been appended to the DOM. If that is the case, the willStart and start will not even be called.

Widget API¶

Widget.tagName¶: Used if the widget has no template defined. Defaults to div, will be used as the tag name to create the DOM element to set as the widget’s DOM root. It is possible to further customize this generated DOM root with the following attributes:

Widget.id¶: Used to generate an id attribute on the generated DOM root. Note that this is rarely needed, and is probably not a good idea if a widget can be used more than once.

Widget.className¶: Used to generate a class attribute on the generated DOM root. Note that it can actually contain more than one css class: ‘some-class other-class’

Widget.attributes¶: Mapping (object literal) of attribute names to attribute values. Each of these k:v pairs will be set as a DOM attribute on the generated DOM root.

Widget.el¶: raw DOM element set as root to the widget (only available after the start lifecycle method)

Widget.$el¶: jQuery wrapper around el. (only available after the start lifecycle method)

Widget.template¶: Should be set to the name of a QWeb template. If set, the template will be rendered after the widget has been initialized but before it has been started. The root element generated by the template will be set as the DOM root of the widget.

Widget.events¶

Events are a mapping of an event selector (an event name and an optional CSS selector separated by a space) to a callback. The callback can be the name of a widget’s method or a function object. In either case, the this will be set to the widget:

events: {
    'click p.oe_some_class a': 'some_method',
    'change input': function (e) {
        e.stopPropagation();
    }
},

The selector is used for jQuery’s event delegation, the callback will only be triggered for descendants of the DOM root matching the selector. If the selector is left out (only an event name is specified), the event will be set directly on the widget’s DOM root.

Note: the use of an inline function is discouraged, and will probably be removed sometimes in the future.

Widget.custom_events¶: this is almost the same as the events attribute, but the keys are arbitrary strings. They represent business events triggered by some sub widgets. When an event is triggered, it will ‘bubble up’ the widget tree (see the section on component communication for more details).

Widget.isDestroyed()¶

Returns: true if the widget is being or has been destroyed, false otherwise

Widget.$(selector)¶

Applies the CSS selector specified as parameter to the widget’s DOM root:

this.$(selector);

is functionally identical to:

this.$el.find(selector);

Arguments

selector (String()) – CSS selector

Returns

jQuery object

Note

this helper method is similar to Backbone.View.$

Widget.setElement(element)¶

Re-sets the widget’s DOM root to the provided element, also handles re-setting the various aliases of the DOM root as well as unsetting and re-setting delegated events.

Arguments

element (Element()) – a DOM element or jQuery object to set as the widget’s DOM root

Inserting a widget in the DOM¶

Widget.appendTo(element)¶: Renders the widget and inserts it as the last child of the target, uses .appendTo()

Widget.prependTo(element)¶: Renders the widget and inserts it as the first child of the target, uses .prependTo()

Widget.insertAfter(element)¶: Renders the widget and inserts it as the preceding sibling of the target, uses .insertAfter()

Widget.insertBefore(element)¶: Renders the widget and inserts it as the following sibling of the target, uses .insertBefore()

All of these methods accept whatever the corresponding jQuery method accepts (CSS selectors, DOM nodes or jQuery objects). They all return a promise and are charged with three tasks:

rendering the widget’s root element via renderElement()
inserting the widget’s root element in the DOM using whichever jQuery method they match
starting the widget, and returning the result of starting it

Widget Guidelines¶

Identifiers (id attribute) should be avoided. In generic applications and modules, id limits the re-usability of components and tends to make code more brittle. Most of the time, they can be replaced with nothing, classes or keeping a reference to a DOM node or jQuery element.

If an id is absolutely necessary (because a third-party library requires one), the id should be partially generated using _.uniqueId() e.g.:
```
this.id = _.uniqueId('my-widget-');
```
Avoid predictable/common CSS class names. Class names such as “content” or “navigation” might match the desired meaning/semantics, but it is likely an other developer will have the same need, creating a naming conflict and unintended behavior. Generic class names should be prefixed with e.g. the name of the component they belong to (creating “informal” namespaces, much as in C or Objective-C).
Global selectors should be avoided. Because a component may be used several times in a single page (an example in Odoo is dashboards), queries should be restricted to a given component’s scope. Unfiltered selections such as $(selector) or document.querySelectorAll(selector) will generally lead to unintended or incorrect behavior. Odoo Web’s Widget() has an attribute providing its DOM root ($el), and a shortcut to select nodes directly ($()).
More generally, never assume your components own or controls anything beyond its own personal $el (so, avoid using a reference to the parent widget)
Html templating/rendering should use QWeb unless absolutely trivial.
All interactive components (components displaying information to the screen or intercepting DOM events) must inherit from Widget() and correctly implement and use its API and life cycle.

Make sure to wait for start to be finished before using $el e.g.:

var Widget = require('web.Widget');

var AlmostCorrectWidget = Widget.extend({
    start: function () {
        this.$el.hasClass(....) // in theory, $el is already set, but you don't know what the parent will do with it, better call super first
        return this._super.apply(arguments);
    },
});

var IncorrectWidget = Widget.extend({
    start: function () {
        this._super.apply(arguments); // the parent promise is lost, nobody will wait for the start of this widget
        this.$el.hasClass(....)
    },
});

var CorrectWidget = Widget.extend({
    start: function () {
        var self = this;
        return this._super.apply(arguments).then(function() {
            self.$el.hasClass(....) // this works, no promise is lost and the code executes in a controlled order: first super, then our code.
        });
    },
});

QWeb Template Engine¶

The web client uses the QWeb Templates template engine to render widgets (unless they override the renderElement method to do something else). The Qweb JS template engine is based on XML, and is mostly compatible with the python implementation.

The web client will wait for that list of template (included into the current asset) to be loaded, before starting its first widget.

Event system¶

There are currently two event systems supported by Odoo: a simple system which allows adding listeners and triggering events, and a more complete system that also makes events ‘bubble up’.

Both of these event systems are implemented in the EventDispatcherMixin, in the file mixins.js. This mixin is included in the Widget class.

Base Event system¶

This event system was historically the first. It implements a simple bus pattern. We have 4 main methods:

on: this is used to register a listener on an event.
off: useful to remove events listener.
once: this is used to register a listener that will only be called once.
trigger: trigger an event. This will cause each listeners to be called.

Here is an example on how this event system could be used:

var Widget = require('web.Widget');
var Counter = require('myModule.Counter');

var MyWidget = Widget.extend({
    start: function () {
        this.counter = new Counter(this);
        this.counter.on('valuechange', this, this._onValueChange);
        var def = this.counter.appendTo(this.$el);
        return Promise.all([def, this._super.apply(this, arguments)]);
    },
    _onValueChange: function (val) {
        // do something with val
    },
});

// in Counter widget, we need to call the trigger method:

... this.trigger('valuechange', someValue);

Warning

the use of this event system is discouraged, we plan to replace each trigger method by the trigger_up method from the extended event system

Extended Event System¶

The custom event widgets is a more advanced system, which mimic the DOM events API. Whenever an event is triggered, it will ‘bubble up’ the component tree, until it reaches the root widget, or is stopped.

trigger_up: this is the method that will create a small OdooEvent and dispatch it in the component tree. Note that it will start with the component that triggered the event
custom_events: this is the equivalent of the event dictionary, but for odoo events.

The OdooEvent class is very simple. It has three public attributes: target (the widget that triggered the event), name (the event name) and data (the payload). It also has 2 methods: stopPropagation and is_stopped.

The previous example can be updated to use the custom event system:

var Widget = require('web.Widget');
var Counter = require('myModule.Counter');

var MyWidget = Widget.extend({
    custom_events: {
        valuechange: '_onValueChange'
    },
    start: function () {
        this.counter = new Counter(this);
        var def = this.counter.appendTo(this.$el);
        return Promise.all([def, this._super.apply(this, arguments)]);
    },
    _onValueChange: function(event) {
        // do something with event.data.val
    },
});

// in Counter widget, we need to call the trigger_up method:

... this.trigger_up('valuechange', {value: someValue});

Registries¶

A common need in the Odoo ecosystem is to extend/change the behaviour of the base system from the outside (by installing an application, i.e. a different module). For example, one may need to add a new widget type in some views. In that case, and many others, the usual process is to create the desired component, then add it to a registry (registering step), to make the rest of the web client aware of its existence.

There are a few registries available in the system:

field registry (exported by web.field_registry)

The field registry contains all field widgets known to the web client. Whenever a view (typically form or list/kanban) needs a field widget, this is where it will look. A typical use case look like this:

var fieldRegistry = require('web.field_registry');

var FieldPad = ...;

fieldRegistry.add('pad', FieldPad);

Note that each value should be a subclass of AbstractField

view registry

This registry contains all JS views known to the web client (and in particular, the view manager). Each value of this registry should be a subclass of AbstractView.

action registry

We keep track of all client actions in this registry. This is where the action manager looks up whenever it needs to create a client action. In version 11, each value should simply be a subclass of Widget. However, in version 12, the values are required to be AbstractAction.

Communication between widgets¶

There are many ways to communicate between components.

From a parent to its child

This is a simple case. The parent widget can simply call a method on its child:

this.someWidget.update(someInfo);

From a widget to its parent/some ancestor

In this case, the widget’s job is simply to notify its environment that something happened. Since we do not want the widget to have a reference to its parent (this would couple the widget with its parent’s implementation), the best way to proceed is usually to trigger an event, which will bubble up the component tree, by using the trigger_up method:

this.trigger_up('open_record', { record: record, id: id});

This event will be triggered on the widget, then will bubble up and be eventually caught by some upstream widget:

var SomeAncestor = Widget.extend({
    custom_events: {
        'open_record': '_onOpenRecord',
    },
    _onOpenRecord: function (event) {
        var record = event.data.record;
        var id = event.data.id;
        // do something with the event.
    },
});

Cross component

Cross component communication can be achieved by using a bus. This is not the preferred form of communication, because it has the disadvantage of making the code harder to maintain. However, it has the advantage of decoupling the components. In that case, this is simply done by triggering and listening to events on a bus. For example:

  // in WidgetA
  var core = require('web.core');

  var WidgetA = Widget.extend({
      ...
      start: function () {
          core.bus.on('barcode_scanned', this, this._onBarcodeScanned);
      },
  });

  // in WidgetB
  var WidgetB = Widget.extend({
      ...
      someFunction: function (barcode) {
          core.bus.trigger('barcode_scanned', barcode);
      },
  });

In this example, we use the bus exported by *web.core*, but this is not
required. A bus could be created for a specific purpose.

Services¶

In version 11.0, we introduced the notion of service. The main idea is to give to sub components a controlled way to access their environment, in a way that allow the framework enough control, and which is testable.

The service system is organized around three ideas: services, service providers and widgets. The way it works is that widgets trigger (with trigger_up) events, these events bubble up to a service provider, which will ask a service to perform a task, then maybe return an answer.

Service¶

A service is an instance of the AbstractService class. It basically only has a name and a few methods. Its job is to perform some work, typically something depending on the environment.

For example, we have the ajax service (job is to perform a rpc), the localStorage (interact with the browser local storage) and many others.

Here is a simplified example on how the ajax service is implemented:

var AbstractService = require('web.AbstractService');

var AjaxService = AbstractService.extend({
    name: 'ajax',
    rpc: function (...) {
        return ...;
    },
});

This service is named ‘ajax’ and define one method, rpc.

Service Provider¶

For services to work, it is necessary that we have a service provider ready to dispatch the custom events. In the backend (web client), this is done by the main web client instance. Note that the code for the service provider comes from the ServiceProviderMixin.

Widget¶

The widget is the part that requests a service. In order to do that, it simply triggers an event call_service (typically by using the helper function call). This event will bubble up and communicate the intent to the rest of the system.

In practice, some functions are so frequently called that we have some helpers functions to make them easier to use. For example, the _rpc method is a helper that helps making a rpc.

var SomeWidget = Widget.extend({
    _getActivityModelViewID: function (model) {
        return this._rpc({
            model: model,
            method: 'get_activity_view_id'
        });
    },
});

Warning

If a widget is destroyed, it will be detached from the main component tree and will not have a parent. In that case, the events will not bubble up, which means that the work will not be done. This is usually exactly what we want from a destroyed widget.

RPCs¶

The rpc functionality is supplied by the ajax service. But most people will probably only interact with the _rpc helpers.

There are typically two usecases when working on Odoo: one may need to call a method on a (python) model (this goes through a controller call_kw), or one may need to directly call a controller (available on some route).

Calling a method on a python model:

return this._rpc({
    model: 'some.model',
    method: 'some_method',
    args: [some, args],
});

Directly calling a controller:

return this._rpc({
    route: '/some/route/',
    params: { some: kwargs},
});

Notifications¶

The Odoo framework has a standard way to communicate various information to the user: notifications, which are displayed on the top right of the user interface.

There are two types of notifications:

notification: useful to display some feedback. For example, whenever a user unsubscribed to a channel.
warning: useful to display some important/urgent information. Typically most kind of (recoverable) errors in the system.

Also, notifications can be used to ask a question to the user without disturbing its workflow. Imagine a phone call received through VOIP: a sticky notification could be displayed with two buttons Accept and Decline.

Notification system¶

The notification system in Odoo is designed with the following components:

a Notification widget: this is a simple widget that is meant to be created and displayed with the desired information
a NotificationService: a service whose responsibility is to create and destroy notifications whenever a request is done (with a custom_event). Note that the web client is a service provider.
a client action display_notification: this allows to trigger the display of a notification from python (e.g. in the method called when the user clicked on a button of type object).
an helper function in ServiceMixin: displayNotification

Displaying a notification¶

The most common way to display a notification is by using the method that come from the ServiceMixin:

displayNotification(options):
Display a notification with the following options:
- title: string, optional. This will be displayed on the top as a title.
- subtitle: string, optional. This will be displayed on the top as a subtitle.
- message: string, optional. The content of the notification. Do not forget to escape your message via the markup function if needed.
- sticky: boolean, optional (default false). If true, the notification will stay until the user dismisses it. Otherwise, the notification will be automatically closed after a short delay.
- type: string, optional (default ‘warning’). Determines the style of the notification. Possible values: ‘info’, ‘success’, ‘warning’, ‘danger’, ‘’.
- className: string, optional. This is a css class name that will be automatically added to the notification. This could be useful for styling purpose, even though its use is discouraged.

Here are two examples on how to use these methods:

// note that we call _t on the text to make sure it is properly translated.
this.displayNotification({
    title: _t("Success"),
    message: _t("Your signature request has been sent.")
});
this.displayNotification({
    title: _t("Error"),
    message: _t("Filter name is required."),
    type: 'danger',
});

Here an example in python:

# note that we call _(string) on the text to make sure it is properly translated.
def show_notification(self):
    return {
        'type': 'ir.actions.client',
        'tag': 'display_notification',
        'params': {
            'title': _('Success'),
            'message': _('Your signature request has been sent.'),
            'sticky': False,
        }
    }

Systray¶

The Systray is the right part of the menu bar in the interface, where the web client displays a few widgets, such as a messaging menu.

When the SystrayMenu is created by the menu, it will look for all registered widgets and add them as a sub widget at the proper place.

There is currently no specific API for systray widgets. They are supposed to be simple widgets, and can communicate with their environment just like other widgets with the trigger_up method.

Adding a new Systray Item¶

There is no systray registry. The proper way to add a widget is to add it to the class variable SystrayMenu.items.

var SystrayMenu = require('web.SystrayMenu');

var MySystrayWidget = Widget.extend({
    ...
});

SystrayMenu.Items.push(MySystrayWidget);

Ordering¶

Before adding the widget to himself, the Systray Menu will sort the items by a sequence property. If that property is not present on the prototype, it will use 50 instead. So, to position a systray item to be on the right, one can set a very high sequence number (and conversely, a low number to put it on the left).

MySystrayWidget.prototype.sequence = 100;

Translation management¶

Some translations are made on the server side (basically all text strings rendered or processed by the server), but there are strings in the static files that need to be translated. The way it currently works is the following:

each translatable string is tagged with the special function _t (available in the JS module web.core
these strings are used by the server to generate the proper PO files
whenever the web client is loaded, it will call the route /web/webclient/translations, which returns a list of all translatable terms
in runtime, whenever the function _t is called, it will look up in this list in order to find a translation, and return it or the original string if none is found.

Note that translations are explained in more details, from the server point of view, in the document Translating Modules.

There are two important functions for the translations in javascript: _t and _lt. The difference is that _lt is lazily evaluated.

var core = require('web.core');

var _t = core._t;
var _lt = core._lt;

var SomeWidget = Widget.extend({
    exampleString: _lt('this should be translated'),
    ...
    someMethod: function () {
        var str = _t('some text');
        ...
    },
});

In this example, the _lt is necessary because the translations are not ready when the module is loaded.

Note that translation functions need some care. The string given in argument should not be dynamic.

Session¶

There is a specific module provided by the web client which contains some information specific to the user current session. Some notable keys are

uid: the current user ID (its ID as a res.users)
user_name: the user name, as a string
the user context (user ID, language and timezone)
partner_id: the ID of the partner associated to the current user
db: the name of the database currently being in use

Adding information to the session¶

When the /web route is loaded, the server will inject some session information in the template a script tag. The information will be read from the method session_info of the model ir.http. So, if one wants to add a specific information, it can be done by overriding the session_info method and adding it to the dictionary.

from odoo import models
from odoo.http import request


class IrHttp(models.AbstractModel):
    _inherit = 'ir.http'

    def session_info(self):
        result = super(IrHttp, self).session_info()
        result['some_key'] = get_some_value_from_db()
        return result

Now, the value can be obtained in javascript by reading it in the session:

var session = require('web.session');
var myValue = session.some_key;
...

Note that this mechanism is designed to reduce the amount of communication needed by the web client to be ready. It is more appropriate for data which is cheap to compute (a slow session_info call will delay the loading for the web client for everyone), and for data which is required early in the initialization process.

Views¶

The word ‘view’ has more than one meaning. This section is about the design of the javascript code of the views, not the structure of the arch or anything else.

In 2017, Odoo replaced the previous view code with a new architecture. The main need was to separate the rendering logic from the model logic.

Views (in a generic sense) are now described with 4 pieces: a View, a Controller, a Renderer and a Model. The API of these 4 pieces is described in the AbstractView, AbstractController, AbstractRenderer and AbstractModel classes.

the View is the factory. Its job is to get a set of fields, arch, context and some other parameters, then to construct a Controller/Renderer/Model triplet.

The view’s role is to properly setup each piece of the MVC pattern, with the correct information. Usually, it has to process the arch string and extract the data necessary for each other parts of the view.

Note that the view is a class, not a widget. Once its job has been done, it can be discarded.
the Renderer has one job: representing the data being viewed in a DOM element. Each view can render the data in a different way. Also, it should listen on appropriate user actions and notify its parent (the Controller) if necessary.

The Renderer is the V in the MVC pattern.
the Model: its job is to fetch and hold the state of the view. Usually, it represents in some way a set of records in the database. The Model is the owner of the ‘business data’. It is the M in the MVC pattern.
the Controller: its job is to coordinate the renderer and the model. Also, it is the main entry point for the rest of the web client. For example, when the user changes something in the search view, the update method of the controller will be called with the appropriate information.

It is the C in the MVC pattern.

Note

The JS code for the views has been designed to be usable outside of the context of a view manager/action manager. They could be used in a client action, or, they could be displayed in the public website (with some work on the assets).

Fields¶

A good part of the web client experience is about editing and creating data. Most of that work is done with the help of field widgets, which are aware of the field type and of the specific details on how a value should be displayed and edited.

Decorations¶

Like the list view, field widgets have a simple support for decorations. The goal of decorations is to have a simple way to specify a text color depending on the record current state. For example:

<field name="state" decoration-danger="amount &lt; 10000"/>

The valid decoration names are:

decoration-bf
decoration-it
decoration-danger
decoration-info
decoration-muted
decoration-primary
decoration-success
decoration-warning

Each decoration decoration-X will be mapped to a css class text-X, which is a standard bootstrap css class (except for text-it and text-bf, which are handled by odoo and correspond to italic and bold, respectively). Note that the value of the decoration attribute should be a valid python expression, which will be evaluated with the record as evaluation context.

Non-relational fields¶

We document here all non relational fields available by default, in no particular order.

Integer (integer)

This is the default field type for fields of type integer.

Supported field types: integer

Options:

type: setting the input type ("text" by default, can be set on "number")
In edit mode, the field is rendered as an input with the HTML attribute type set on "number" (so user can benefit the native support, especially on mobile). In this case, the default formatting is disabled to avoid incompability.
<field name="int_value" options="{'type': 'number'}" />
step: set the step to the value up and down when the user click on buttons (only for input of type number, 1 by default)
<field name="int_value" options="{'type': 'number', 'step': 100}" />
format: should the number be formatted. (true by default)
By default, numbers are formatted according to locale parameters. This option will prevent the field’s value from being formatted.
<field name="int_value" options='{"format": false}' />

Float (float)

This is the default field type for fields of type float.

Supported field types: float

Attributes:

digits: displayed precision

<field name="factor" digits="[42,5]" />

Options:

type: setting the input type ("text" by default, can be set on "number")
In edit mode, the field is rendered as an input with the HTML attribute type set on "number" (so user can benefit the native support, especially on mobile). In this case, the default formatting is disabled to avoid incompability.
<field name="int_value" options="{'type': 'number'}" />
step: set the step to the value up and down when the user click on buttons (only for input of type number, 1 by default)
<field name="int_value" options="{'type': 'number', 'step': 0.1}" />
format: should the number be formatted. (true by default)
By default, numbers are formatted according to locale parameters. This option will prevent the field’s value from being formatted.
<field name="int_value" options="{'format': false}" />

Time (float_time)

The goal of this widget is to display properly a float value that represents a time interval (in hours). So, for example, 0.5 should be formatted as 0:30, or 4.75 correspond to 4:45.

Supported field types: float

Float Factor (float_factor)

This widget aims to display properly a float value that converted using a factor given in its options. So, for example, the value saved in database is 0.5 and the factor is 3, the widget value should be formatted as 1.5.

Supported field types: float

Float Toggle (float_toggle)

The goal of this widget is to replace the input field by a button containing a range of possible values (given in the options). Each click allows the user to loop in the range. The purpose here is to restrict the field value to a predefined selection. Also, the widget support the factor conversion as the float_factor widget (Range values should be the result of the conversion).

Supported field types: float

<field name="days_to_close" widget="float_toggle" options="{'factor': 2, 'range': [0, 4, 8]}" />

Boolean (boolean)

This is the default field type for fields of type boolean.

Supported field types: boolean

Char (char)

This is the default field type for fields of type char.

Supported field types: char

Date (date)

This is the default field type for fields of type date. It consists of a text box and a date picker.

Supported field types: date

Options:

min_date / max_date: sets limit dates for accepted values. By default, the earliest accepted date is 1000-01-01 and the latest is 9999-12-31. Accepted values are SQL-formatted dates (yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss) or "today".
<field name="datefield" options="{'min_date': 'today', 'max_date': '2023-12-31'}" />
warn_future: displays a warning if the value is in the future (based on today).
<field name="datefield" options="{'warn_future': true}" />

Date & Time (datetime)

This is the default field type for fields of type datetime. The values are always in the client’s timezone.

Supported field types: datetime

Options:

see Date Field options
rounding: increment used to generate available minutes in the time picker. This does not affect the actual value, just the amount of available options in the select dropdown (default: 5).
<field name="datetimefield" options="{'rounding': 10}" />

Date Range (daterange)

This widget allows the user to select start and end date from a single picker.

Supported field types: date, datetime

Options:

see Date Field or Date & Time Field options
start_date_field: field used to get/set the start value of the date range (cannot be used with end_date_field).
<field name="end_date" widget="daterange" options="{'start_date_field': 'start_date'}" />
end_date_field: field used to get/set the end value of the date range (cannot be used with start_date_field).
<field name="start_date" widget="daterange" options="{'end_date_field': 'end_date'}" />

Remaining Days (remaining_days)

This widget can be used on date and datetime fields. In readonly, it displays the delta (in days) between the value of the field and today. The widget turns into a regular date or datetime field in edit mode.

Supported field types: date, datetime

Monetary (monetary)

This is the default field type for fields of type monetary. It is used to display a currency. If there is a currency fields given in option, it will use that, otherwise it will fall back to the default currency (in the session)

Supported field types: monetary, float

Options:

currency_field: another field name which should be a many2one on currency.

<field name="value" widget="monetary" options="{'currency_field': 'currency_id'}" />

Text (text)

This is the default field type for fields of type text.

Supported field types: text

Handle (handle)

This field’s job is to be displayed as a handle, and allows reordering the various records by drag and dropping them.

Warning

It has to be specified on the field by which records are sorted.

Warning

Having more than one field with a handle widget on the same list is not supported.

Supported field types: integer

Email (email)

This field displays email address. The main reason to use it is that it is rendered as an anchor tag with the proper href, in readonly mode.

Supported field types: char

Phone (phone)

This field displays a phone number. The main reason to use it is that it is rendered as an anchor tag with the proper href, in readonly mode, but only in some cases: we only want to make it clickable if the device can call this particular number.

Supported field types: char

URL (url)

This field displays an url (in readonly mode). The main reason to use it is that it is rendered as an anchor tag with the proper css classes and href.

Also, the text of the anchor tag can be customized with the text attribute (it won’t change the href value).

Supported field types: char

<field name="foo" widget="url" text="Some URL" />

Options:

website_path: (default: false) by default, the widget forces (if not already the case) the href value to begin with "http://" except if this option is set to true, thus allowing redirections to the database’s own website.

Domain (domain)

The domain field allows the user to construct a technical-prefix domain thanks to a tree-like interface and see the selected records in real time. In debug mode, an input is also there to be able to enter the prefix char domain directly (or to build advanced domains the tree-like interface does not allow to).

Note that this is limited to static domains (no dynamic expressions, or access to context variable).

Supported field types: char

Link button (link_button)

The LinkButton widget actually simply displays a span with an icon and the text value as content. The link is clickable and will open a new browser window with its value as url.

Supported field types: char

Image File (image)

This widget is used to represent a binary value as an image. In some cases, the server returns a bin_size instead of the real image (a bin_size is a string representing a file size, such as "6.5kb"). In that case, the widget will make an image with a source attribute corresponding to an image on the server.

Supported field types: binary

Options:

preview_image: if the image is only loaded as a bin_size, then this option is useful to inform the web client that the default field name is not the name of the current field, but the name of another field.
<field name="image" widget="image" options="{'preview_image': 'image_128'}" />
accepted_file_extensions: the file extension the user can pick from the file input dialog box (default value is "image/*")

(cf: accept attribute on <input type="file" />)

Binary File (binary)

Generic widget to allow saving/downloading a binary file.

Supported field types: binary

Attributes:

filename: saving a binary file will lose its file name, since it only saves the binary value. The file name can be saved in another field. To do that, a filename attribute should be set to a field present in the view.
<field name="datas" filename="datas_fname" />

Options:

accepted_file_extensions: the file extension the user can pick from the file input dialog box

(cf: accept attribute on <input type="file" />)

Priority (priority)

This widget is rendered as a set of stars, allowing the user to click on it to select a value or not. This is useful for example to mark a task as high priority.

Note that this widget also works in readonly mode, which is unusual.

Supported field types: selection

Image Attachment (attachment_image)

Image widget for many2one fields. If the field is set, this widget will be rendered as an image with the proper src url. This widget does not have a different behaviour in edit or readonly mode, it is only useful to view an image.

Supported field types: many2one

<field name="displayed_image_id" widget="attachment_image" />

Label Selection (label_selection)

This widget renders a simple non-editable label. This is only useful to display some information, not to edit it.

Supported field types: selection

Options:

classes: a mapping from a selection value to a CSS class name

<field
    name="state"
    widget="label_selection"
    options="{
        'classes': {
            'draft': 'default',
            'cancel': 'default',
            'none': 'danger',
        },
    }"
/>

State Selection (state_selection)

This is a specialized selection widget. It assumes that the record has some hardcoded fields, present in the view: stage_id, legend_normal, legend_blocked, legend_done. This is mostly used to display and change the state of a task in a project, with additional information displayed in the dropdown.

Supported field types: selection

<field name="kanban_state" widget="state_selection" />

State Selection - List View (list.state_selection)

In list views, the state_selection field displays by default the label next to the icon.

Supported field types: selection

Options:

hide_label: hide the label next to the icon

<field name="kanban_state" widget="state_selection" options="{'hide_label': true}" />

Favorite (boolean_favorite)

This widget is displayed as an empty (or not) star, depending on a boolean value. Note that it also can be edited in readonly mode.

Supported field types: boolean

Toggle (boolean_toggle)

Displays a toggle switch to represent a boolean. This is a subfield of the boolean field, mostly used to have a different look.

Supported field types: boolean

Stat Info (statinfo)

This widget is meant to represent statistical information in a stat button. It is basically just a label with a number.

Supported field types: integer, float

Options:

label_field: if given, the widget will use the value of the label_field as text.

<button
    name="%(act_payslip_lines)d"
    icon="fa-money"
    type="action"
>
    <field
        name="payslip_count"
        widget="statinfo"
        string="Payslip"
        options="{'label_field': 'label_tasks'}"
    />
</button>

Percent Pie (percentpie)

This widget is meant to represent statistical information in a stat button. This is similar to a statinfo widget, but the information is represented in a pie chart (empty to full). Note that the value is interpreted as a percentage (a number between 0 and 100).

Supported field types: integer, float

<field name="replied_ratio" string="Replied" widget="percentpie" />

Progress Bar (progressbar)

Represent a value as a progress bar (from 0 to some value)

Supported field types: integer, float

Options:

editable: boolean determining whether the value is editable
current_value: get the current value from the field that must be present in the view
max_value: get the maximum value from the field that must be present in the view
edit_max_value: boolean determining whether the max_value is editable
title: title of the bar, displayed on top of the bar

-> not translated, use title attribute (not option) instead if the term must be translated

<field
    name="absence_of_today"
    widget="progressbar"
    options="{
        'current_value': 'absence_of_today',
        'max_value': 'total_employee',
        'editable': false,
    }"
/>

Journal Dashboard Graph (dashboard_graph)

This is a more specialized widget, useful to display a graph representing a set of data. For example, it is used in the accounting dashboard kanban view.

It assumes that the field is a JSON serialization of a set of data.

Supported field types: char

Attributes:

graph_type: string, can be either "line" or "bar"

<field name="dashboard_graph_data" widget="dashboard_graph" graph_type="line" />

Ace Editor (ace)

This widget is intended to be used on Text fields. It provides Ace Editor for editing XML and Python.

Supported field types: char, text

Badge (badge)

Displays the value inside a bootstrap badge pill.

Supported field types: char, selection, many2one

By default, the badge has a light grey background, but it can be customized by using the Decoration mechanism. For instance, to display a red badge under a given condition:

<field name="foo" widget="badge" decoration-danger="state == 'cancel'" />

Relational fields¶

Selection (selection)

Supported field types: selection

Attributes:
placeholder: a string which is used to display some info when no value is selected
<field name="tax_id" widget="selection" placeholder="Select a tax" />

Radio (radio)

This is a subfield of FielSelection, but specialized to display all the valid choices as radio buttons.

Note that if used on a many2one records, then more rpcs will be done to fetch the name_gets of the related records.

Supported field types: selection, many2one

Options:

horizontal: if true, radio buttons will be displayed horizontally.

<field name="recommended_activity_type_id" widget="radio" options="{'horizontal': true}"/>

Badge Selection (selection_badge)

This is a subfield of selection field, but specialized to display all the valid choices as rectangular badges.

Supported field types: selection, many2one

<field name="recommended_activity_type_id" widget="selection_badge" />

Many2one (many2one)

Default widget for many2one fields.

Supported field types: many2one

Attributes:

can_create: allow the creation of related records (takes precedence over no_create option)
can_write: allow the editing of related records (default: true)

Options:

quick_create: allow the quick creation of related records (default: true)
no_create: prevent the creation of related records - hide both the Create “xxx” and Create and Edit dropdown menu items (default: false)
no_quick_create: prevent the quick creation of related records - hide the Create “xxx” dropdown menu item (default: false)
no_create_edit: hide the Create and Edit dropdown menu item (default: false)
create_name_field: when creating a related record, if this option is set, the value of the create_name_field will be filled with the value of the input (default: name)
always_reload: boolean, default to false. If true, the widget will always do an additional name_get to fetch its name value. This is used for the situations where the name_get method is overridden (please do not do that)
no_open: boolean, default to false. If set to true, the many2one will not redirect on the record when clicking on it (in readonly mode)

<field name="currency_id" options="{'no_create': true, 'no_open': true}" />

Many2one Barcode (many2one_barcode)

Widget for many2one fields allows to open the camera from a mobile device (Android/iOS) to scan a barcode.

Specialization of many2one field where the user is allowed to use the native camera to scan a barcode. Then it uses name_search to search this value.

If this widget is set and user is not using the mobile application, it will fallback to regular many2one (Many2OneField)

Supported field types: many2one

Many2one Avatar (many2one_avatar)

This widget is only supported on many2one fields pointing to a model which inherits from image.mixin. In readonly, it displays the image of the related record next to its display_name. Note that the display_name isn’t a clickable link in this case. In edit, it behaves exactly like the regular many2one.

Supported field types: many2one

Many2one Avatar User (many2one_avatar_user)

This widget is a specialization of the Many2OneAvatar. When the avatar is clicked, we open a chat window with the corresponding user. This widget can only be set on many2one fields pointing to the res.users model.

Supported field types: many2one (pointing to res.users)

Many2one Avatar Employee (many2one_avatar_employee)

Same as many2one_avatar_user, but for many2one fields pointing to hr.employee.

Supported field types: many2one (pointing to hr.employee)

Many2many (many2many)

Default widget for many2many fields.

Supported field types: many2many

Attributes:

mode: string, default view to display
domain: restrict the data to a specific domain

Options:

create_text: allow the customization of the text displayed when adding a new record
link: domain determining whether records can be added to the relation (default: true).
unlink: domain determining whether records can be removed from the relation (default: true).

Many2many Binary File (many2many_binary)

This widget helps the user to upload or delete one or more files at the same time.

Note that this widget is specific to the model ir.attachment.

Supported field types: many2many

Options:

accepted_file_extensions: the file extension the user can pick from the file input dialog box

(cf: accept attribute on <input type="file" />)

Many2many Tags (many2many_tags)

Display a many2many field as a list of tags.

Supported field types: many2many

Options:

create: domain determining whether or not new tags can be created (default: true).

<field name="category_id" widget="many2many_tags" options="{'create': [['some_other_field', '>', 24]]}" />

color_field: the name of a numeric field, which should be present in the view. A color will be chosen depending on its value.
<field name="category_id" widget="many2many_tags" options="{'color_field': 'color'}" />

no_edit_color: set to true to remove the possibility to change the color of the tags (default: false).

<field name="category_id" widget="many2many_tags" options="{'color_field': 'color', 'no_edit_color': true}" />

Many2many Tags - Form View (form.many2many_tags)

Specialization of many2many_tags widget for form views. It has some extra code to allow editing the color of a tag.

Supported field types: many2many

Many2many Tags - Kanban View (kanban.many2many_tags)

Specialization of many2many_tags widget for kanban views.

Supported field types: many2many

Many2many Checkboxes (many2many_checkboxes)

This field displays a list of checkboxes and allows the user to select a subset of the choices. Note that the number of displayed values is limited to 100. This limit isn’t customizable. It simply allows to handle extreme cases where this widget is wrongly set on a field with a huge comodel. In those cases, a list view is more adequate as it allows pagination and filtering.

Supported field types: many2many

One2many (one2many)

Default widget for one2many fields. It usually displays data in a sub list view, or a sub kanban view.

Supported field types: one2many

Options:

create: domain determining whether or not related records can be created (default: true).
delete: domain determining whether or not related records can be deleted (default: true).
<field name="turtles" options="{'create': [['some_other_field', '>', 24]]}" />
create_text: a string that is used to customize the ‘Add’ label/text.
<field name="turtles" options="{'create_text': 'Add turtle'}" />

Status Bar (statusbar)

This is a field specific to the form views. It is the bar on top of many forms which represent a flow, and allow selecting a specific state.

Supported field types: selection, many2one

Reference (reference)

The reference field is a combination of a select (for the model) and a many2one field (for its value). It allows the selection of a record on an arbitrary model.

Supported field types: char, reference

Options:

model_field: name of an ir.model containing the model of the records that can be selected. When this option is set, the select part of the reference field isn’t displayed.

Widgets¶

Week Days (week_days)

This widget displays a list of checkboxes for week days, 1 checkbox for each day and allow the user to select a subset of the choices.

<widget name="week_days" />

Client actions¶

The idea of a client action is a customized widget that is integrated into the web client interface, just like an act_window_action. This is useful when you need a component that is not closely linked to an existing view or a specific model. For example, the Discuss application is actually a client action.

A client action is a term that has various meanings, depending on the context:

from the perspective of the server, it is a record of the model ir_action, with a field tag of type char
from the perspective of the web client, it is a widget, which inherits from the class AbstractAction, and is supposed to be registered in the action registry under the corresponding key (from the field char)

Whenever a menu item is associated with a client action, opening it will simply fetch the action definition from the server, then lookup into its action registry to get the Widget definition at the appropriate key, and finally, it will instantiate and append the widget to the proper place in the DOM.

Adding a client action¶

A client action is a widget that will control the part of the screen below the menu bar. It can have a control panel, if necessary. Defining a client action can be done in two steps: implementing a new widget and registering the widget in the action registry.

Implementing a new client action.

This is done by creating a widget:

var AbstractAction = require('web.AbstractAction');

var ClientAction = AbstractAction.extend({
    hasControlPanel: true,
    ...
});

Registering the client action:

As usual, we need to make the web client aware of the mapping between client actions and the actual class:

var core = require('web.core');

core.action_registry.add('my-custom-action', ClientAction);

Then, to use the client action in the web client, we need to create a client action record (a record of the model ir.actions.client) with the proper tag attribute:

<record id="my_client_action" model="ir.actions.client">
    <field name="name">Some Name</field>
    <field name="tag">my-custom-action</field>
</record>

Using the control panel¶

By default, the client action does not display a control panel. To do that, several steps should be done.

Set the hasControlPanel to true. In the widget code:

var MyClientAction = AbstractAction.extend({
    hasControlPanel: true,
    ...
});

Call the method updateControlPanel whenever we need to update the control panel. For example:

var SomeClientAction = Widget.extend({
    hasControlPanel: true,
    ...
    start: function () {
        this._renderButtons();
        this._update_control_panel();
        ...
    },
    do_show: function () {
         ...
         this._update_control_panel();
    },
    _renderButtons: function () {
        this.$buttons = $(QWeb.render('SomeTemplate.Buttons'));
        this.$buttons.on('click', ...);
    },
    _update_control_panel: function () {
        this.updateControlPanel({
            cp_content: {
               $buttons: this.$buttons,
            },
        });
    }

The updateControlPanel is the main method to customize the content in the control panel. For more information, look into the control_panel_renderer.js file.

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