Odoo 11

New building block result

Creating building blocks in Odoo

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In this tutorial I will learn you how to create new building blocks and how to add the blocks to the menu so that you can quickly drag and drop the blocks in the webpage.
In this tutorial I will create a new building block named “References with title” which will show four icons and a title above it:
New building block result

1. Adding the dependency

Before you can start creating a new building block you will need to create a new module and configure the manifest.py correctly. Open up your manifest.py and add the website as a dependency:

Without this dependency you cannot create and add new building blocks to the Odoo website.

2. Creating a new XML file

Now create a new XML file named “snippets.xml” under the “views” folder:
snippets.xml structure
In this file we will add all the code to create the building block (snippet) and to make it visible in the editor.

2.1 Creating the building blocks

First we will need to create the building block itself. Let us create a building block that has a title (h3) saying “Our references” with four logo’s under the title. Have a look at this code:

So, what does this tell us? We first create a new XML record. After doing this we add all our code within a section block and inside this we create a container div. Within this section and container you can basically code anything you like, this is the framework for any building block. Generally when you create a building block you try to use as much bootstrap classes as possible. In the above example I simply made two rows. One row for the title and one row for the images. Those images are all the same width thanks to the default bootstrap classes col-md, col-sm and col-xs-6.
You’re already well over halfway to your own building block! If you would install this module right now all the code would be there that is needed for a building block, but we still have to show it in the editor so that we can use it.

2.2 Adding the building block to the editor

Let us continue and add a building block preview to the editor so you can quickly find it from the editor.
You can do this by inheriting the default “website.snippets” record and doing an xpath in the “snippet_structure” id, which holds the main structure of the editor. Have a look at this code:

Let me explain the code a bit further. We first inherit the default ‘website.snippets’ record, which holds the link to all available snippets. By doing an xpath on ‘snippet_structure’ we’re telling Odoo to add our building block preview within the editor. In this xpath element we add a div and we use the t-snippet element made by Odoo. By doing so Odoo knows we want to add a snippet preview to the editor.
Finally save this file and add it in the manifest.py file so that it is loaded:

When you now install the module you will see your new building block is available for use from the editor:
Building block editor example
That is all. You’ve just made your own building block, congratulations!

3. Conclusion

Thanks to the Odoo framework it is very easy to create and use new building blocks. The functionality is so flexible and easy to use that you can create a building block for about anything. Creating and reusing building blocks in Odoo is one of the biggest strengths of the Odoo website editor.

Do you want to try the demo code and see the source code of this tutorial? You can view it on my Github account.
Has this tutorial helped you, do you have any feedback or questions? Post away!
Tutorial sponsored by Oocademy


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Odoo homepage screen

Installing Odoo frontend and backend on different servers

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In this tutorial I will teach you how to separate your Odoo frontend and backend. I will install the Odoo codebase/frontend on one server and the backend (your PostgreSQL server and database) on another server. You will learn how to configure both Odoo and PostgreSQL to achieve this.

1. Introduction

In order to achieve and demonstrate this setup to you I will be working with two virtual machines.
I will refer to the Odoo codebase/frontend server as the ‘frontend server’. The PostgreSQL server and database will be named ‘backend server’ throughout this tutorial.
My frontend server has the IP 192.168.118.167 and my backend server has the IP 192.168.118.168.
Tip: Make sure that both your servers have a fixed IP, otherwise your setup will break due to IP changes!

2. Configuring the backend server

Let us start with the configuration of the backend server. This server will contain the PostgreSQL server and the database(s).

2.1 Installing postgreSQL

Open up a terminal on your backend server and install PostgreSQL if you haven’t yet:

2.2 Creating the PostgreSQL user

Now create a new PostgreSQL user. Make sure that the PostgreSQL username matches with the username of the user running Odoo on your frontend server. In my example I will create a new PostgreSQL user with the name “odoo11”:

After you execute this command the system will ask you for a password for this user. Fill in a password and confirm this password again.
Tip: Don’t forget to remember this password, you’ll need it later on.

2.3 Configuring pg_hba.conf

After installing the PostgreSQL server and creating the user we now need to configure the remote connections. As our backend server will be used for the database connections our frontend server needs to be able to access it. Open up your frontend server and get the IP of the server. In my example my frontend server has the IP 192.168.118.167. Now open up your pg_hba.conf file on your backend server:

Scroll in this file and search for the following line of code:

Add a new line after the existing one which contains your frontend server its IP address. As you don’t want to use the exact IP address you should use the /24 subdomain. In my example this results to 192.168.118.0/24 instead of 192.168.118.167. Your configuration file should now look like this:

Finally, save your file and close it. Your PostgreSQL now knows that you want to allow connections from the backend server (IP 192.168.118.167).

2.4 Configuring postgresql.conf

Your PostgreSQL still needs to know the listen address of your frontend server too though. To achieve this we have to edit the postgresql.conf file:

Find the ‘listen_addresses’ line, which looks like this by default:

Now add in the IP of your frontend Odoo server (in my example 192.168.118.192):

Tip: Don’t forget to remove the # in this line because otherwise this line will be skipped!
Save this file and close it.
You’ve now applied all the changes that you need to do on the backend server. Next reload the PostgreSQL service in order to apply all the changes:

3. Configuring the frontend server

Your backend server is done now. Switch to the frontend server and open up your Odoo configuration file.
Tip: If you haven’t installed an Odoo yet you can follow my tutorial here
Typically your Odoo configuration file is under /etc/ and is named your-odoo.conf:

Add or change the following parameters in the configuration file:

Finally, restart your Odoo service to reload your Odoo configuration:

When you now browse to your Odoo instance (on your frontend server) you’ll see that your new Odoo is ready to use.
Odoo homepage screen
That is all! You’ve now setup your own Odoo instance where the frontend and backend are split between two servers.

4. Tips

While this is everything that you need in order to split up the backend and frontend of Odoo there are still some things to consider.
Because of security reasons you’ll most likely want to encrypt all the data and place everything on SSL. This also includes the calls from the frontend server to the backend server.
After you’ve created a new database you should check if the database is in fact created on the backend server instead of on the frontend server. You can do this executing the following commands (one by one) on your backend server:

After running these commands you can see an overview of your databases and to what user the database belongs. In my example you can see a new database named ‘ABC’ which is owned by my Odoo/PostgreSQL user ‘odoo11’:
Database overview result backend

5. Conclusion

Setting up an Odoo instance where the frontend and the backend are split is actually quite easy. Due to the built-in parameters from Odoo it is very easy to configure the frontend side. When you split the frontend and backend up and apply extra security – such as HTTPS connections and VLAN’s – you’ll have a safer and more controlable Odoo instance.
If you’d like to learn more about the deployment of servers and the default Odoo parameters you can have a look at the official documentation.

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Creating automated tests in Odoo

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In this tutorial I will learn you how to write tests, how to use the tests in Odoo and how to test them. I will create an example test that creates a new project, a new task and attaches the project to the new task.
Tip: This tutorial is based on Odoo V11 but will also work in V10.

1. Creating a new module

Let us create a new module to start. You can either manually create a module or create one with the scaffold command from Odoo. Now that you’ve created your module you should add the dependency to the module where you want to create a test for. In this tutorial I will create a test for the project module so I’ll add a dependency for ‘project’. Add your depends in the manifest.py (or __openerp__.py in V10):

2. Creating the Python files

After you’ve created your new module you should create a new folder named ‘tests’. Create a new Python file for the test, in this example I’ll create a new file named ‘test_project.py’.
Tip: The filename of a Python test should always start with ‘test_’ or it will not be executed! Your folder structure should now look like this:
Tests folder structure

Next create a new Python file named __init__.py and import the Python file ‘test_project’ in it:

Your folder structure should now look like this:
Complete tests folder structure
Tip: You should not import the tests folder in the main __init__.py file. Odoo tests are an exception and have a built-in check by Odoo. They do not need an explicit import like models or controllers.

3. Creating the class and adding imports

Now open up your ‘test_project.py’ file again and let us start by adding the import and creating the class structure!
In order to write a test you should import ‘odoo.tests’ and you should create a new class with a TransactionCase. Have a look at this code:

So, does this make sense to you? We simply import the default Odoo framework options for tests with ‘from odoo.tests import common’. We then create a new class in which we add ‘common.TransactionCase’. The ‘common.TransactionCase’ tells Odoo that we want to test a transaction and that we want to do a rollback of this record after the test is done.

4. Writing the tests

Now that we have the basic structure setup there is just one more thing to do: write a function in which you want to do your tests. Go ahead and create a new function in your file.
Tip: Function names for tests should always start with ‘test_’ or they will not be run by Odoo!

Finally, write the test cases you’d like in this function. In my example I will create a test that creates a new project, then creates a new task and then adds the project to the task. Have a look at this piece of code:

So, does this make sense to you? A lot of the code looks the same as if you’re writing custom code. With self.env[‘project.project’].create({}) we’ll create a new project named ‘TestProject’. With self.env[‘project.task’].create({}) we’ll create a new task named ‘ExampleTask’ and we will assign the project to this task, thanks to the ‘test_project’ variable.
If you would run this code it would create a new project and task and the moment the test is finished the transaction is rolled back (so there is no record in the database).

4.1 Understanding assertEqual

The final part of my code shows some assertEqual calls, so what do these calls do? assertEqual is made available by default in Odoo to test and compare values. For example:

This will test if the just created project record it’s name is indeed named ‘TestProject’. In the second assertEqual I check if the task name is in fact ‘ExampleTask’. And, finally, in the third assertEqual I check if the project attached to the task is indeed the right project:

The first variable of assertEqual is always the value you’ve gotten back from the test and the second part is the result that you’re expecting. If there is a difference in those two the test will fail.

5. Running / testing the test

So now we’ve coded the whole test but how do we run and test it? In order to run a test you should use the ‘–test-enable’ parameter and the ‘-i’ parameter to say which module(s) you want to test. If you want to test this in your local Odoo instance you will need to run your Odoo from the terminal like this:

If you have a runbot instance (or use Odoo.sh) the tests will be executed automatically and you will see if the test succeeded or failed right away. An example of Odoo.sh:
Odoo.sh status example
An example of a runbot instance:
Runbot status example

When you just run the tests locally you can see if the test succeeded or failed in the logfile. Open up your logfile after you’ve ran the test and have a look at the output:

If you add a print statement in the test, like in my example, you will also see it printed in the terminal:
Succesfull test

5.1 Making a test fail

We’ve now seen how to create a test and how to run it, but how exactly does a failed test look?
Open up your test again and change the assertEqual from this:

to this:

Run the test from your terminal again with -i your_module –test-enable in the command. You’ll see that the print statement is no longer printed in your terminal. Now open up your logfile again after your Odoo is loaded. You’ll now find a failure in the logfile:

This shows you that the input ‘TestProject’ does not match what we expect (‘TestProject11’) and because of this our test failed.
If you would commit these changes to Github and if you’re using a runbot or Odoo.sh you’ll also see a failed instance after this.

6. Conclusion

Writing and using tests in Odoo is quite easy to do. It is a great feature to use if you’re writing a lot of custom code and want to keep overview. Thanks to Odoo.sh and runbots it is also very easy to follow up on your tests and to see if something has broken or not. Sadly at this point running tests locally isn’t very easy to follow up though so you might want to consider setting up a runbot or Odoo.sh account.
Do you want to try the demo code and see the source code of this tutorial? You can view it on my Github account.
Has this tutorial helped you, do you have any feedback or questions? Post away!
Tutorial sponsored by Oocademy


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Creating a tour in Odoo

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In this tutorial I will teach you how to create a tour in Odoo. You will learn how to create a tour step by step in JavaScript and how to guide your users through your custom development.
In this tutorial I will create a new tour throughout the contacts app in order to guide a new user through this module.
Updated tutorial available on Oocademy

1. Creating a new module

Let us create a new module to start. You can either manually create a module or create one with the scaffold command from Odoo. Now that you’ve created your module you should add the dependency to the module where you want to create a tour. In this tutorial I will create a tour that guides the user through the contacts app.

2. Creating the tour

The first thing to do in order to create a tour is to create a JavaScript file. In Odoo you should place all JavaScript code under /static/src/js so create these folders first. Create these new folders and then create a new JavaScript file named ‘tour.js’. You should now have this:
JavaScript folder structure
Now open up your JS file and define a new function. In this function you should require ‘web.core’ and ‘web.core.tour’ and include ‘core._t’ in order to manage translations later on. Your code should now look like this:

2.1. Registering the tour

You now have the basic JavaScript structure! It is time to register a tour and add steps to this tour. Just have a look at this code for a minute:

Does this make any sense to you? Let us walk over it line by line. The tour.register function will tell Odoo that you want to add a new tour to Odoo. ‘example_tour’ is the technical name of the tour, but be sure that it is unique! The next line shows “url” which tells Odoo on which page the tour should start (in this tutorial from the home screen). ‘tour.STEPS.MENU_MORE’ is built in in Odoo to know where/when/how the tour should be loaded.

Finally, you’ll see the options ‘trigger’, ‘content’ and ‘position’. The ‘trigger’ will tell Odoo when exactly that you would want to trigger the tour step. In this example our tour would start on the main Odoo screen and will show a little icon under the contacts app. If you would install the app with this piece of code you would get the following result:
Tour home screen

The ‘content’ will show a text dialog to the enduser and the ‘position’ tells Odoo where exactly to show this text (top, right, left or bottom).

2.2 Choosing your tour steps

A tour should contain multiple steps and a logical flow though. Take a minute to figure out the steps you would like your users to follow in your tour.
In this tutorial I will add the following steps:
– The moment the user clicks on ‘Contacts’ and when the Kanban view opens we’ll show a hint to click on the ‘Create’ button.
– After clicking on the ‘Create’ button we’ll show a hint to fill in the name of the contact.
– When the name of the contact is filled in we’ll show a hint to click on ‘Save’.

2.3 Creating all tour steps

So, how do we code all the steps? Just have a look at the full code for a minute:

If you would run this code it would do exactly the points that I’ve subscribed. The trigger tells when the next step should go off. For example with the trigger ‘.o-kanban-button-new’ it will show a blinking icon next to the ‘Create’ button. Have you noticed the ‘extra_trigger’ option and the ‘run’ option in the third step? By setting an ‘extra_trigger’ Odoo knows when the trigger should go off (in this case after the user clicked on create so he is in edit mode). The ‘run’ option will tell Odoo to automatically fill in text in the field that we’ve put a trigger on, in this example the field ‘name’. If we would run (play) the tour from the Odoo interface it would now automatically fill in the name of the new contact.
That is all! You’ve now got the JavaScript code to create a tour.

3. Including the JavaScript

Finally you should now include your JavaScript file so that it gets compiled in Odoo too. Create a new xml file named ‘assets.xml’ in a new folder ‘views’:
Assets folder structure

Open up the XML file, inherit the assets template and insert the tour.js file into the assets. Your code should look like this:

Now open up your manifest.py (or openerp.py if you’re in V10) and add the ‘assets.xml’ file to the data key so that it gets loaded too:

That’s it, you’ve created your very first tour! If you save this code and run the module you will get the following behaviour:


4. Translating the tour

Now what if you have Odoo users that speak different languages? Luckily you can also translate tours to any language. Activate developer mode and then go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Translations’ > ‘Export translation’. You’ll now see a dialog from which you can choose the target language and where you can select your app. Select your target language, choose the file format ‘PO File’ and choose your app. Finally click on ‘Export’:
Export translations

Next create a new folder named ‘i18n’ and add your downloaded file to this folder:
Translation folder structure
Finally, open up the PO file and translate all the terms:
Translation example
When you now update your module and switch to another language you’ll see that the tour is translated.

5. Conclusion

Because of the built-in framework from Odoo it is very easy to create a tour for users. With this tour you can guide a new user through your own custom development in a matter of minutes and with personalised text. Creating tours is really quick and just takes a few lines of code.
Do you want to try the demo code and see the source code of this tutorial? You can view it on my Github account.
Has this tutorial helped you, do you have any feedback or questions? Post away!


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Installing Odoo 11 (enterprise) on Ubuntu

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In this tutorial I will learn you how to install Odoo 11 community or enterprise on Ubuntu 16.04. The script that you will use is based on the code from André Schenkels but has been updated, upgraded and improved. Do notice that if you want to install the enterprise version that you will need to be an official partner or that you need to have bought the enterprise subscription from Odoo. Otherwise you will have no access to the Github repository for the enterprise code!

1. Downloading the script

The first step is to download my script from Github and to add the code in a new .sh file on your Ubuntu machine, wherever you’d like this.
For example right under /home. Open up an Ubuntu terminal and cd to the directory where you’d like to keep the script and then create the file:

If you’re curious about how the whole code looks and works you can find it on my Github account.
Now open up the file and edit the parameters to your liking:

There are some things you can configure/change to your likings at the top of the script. You can choose if you wish to install Wkhtmltopdf or not, which version you’d like, where the location is and most importantly what the master admin password is.
Tip: always modify this for every Odoo you install!
If you want the enterprise version of V11 you should change the line IS_ENTERPRISE to true:

If you want the community version you can just continue and keep the IS_ENTERPRISE key on “False” (which is the case by default):

2. Making the Odoo installation file executable

The next step is to make this file executable. After you’ve made it executable you can execute it and everything will be installed automatically.
do this with the following command:

3.Running the script

Now that the code is in your file and the file is executable you simply have to execute it with the following command:

You will see that the script automatically starts updates, downloads required packages, creates the user, downloads the code from Github, … Eventually, if you’ve chosen to install the enterprise version, you will need to give in your Github credentials to download the enterprise code (since this is a private repository). Fill in your details and let the script continue:
Odoo 9 enterprise authentication
Give the script a few minutes to configure and install everything and eventually you will see something like this:
Result install script

You now have a fully functional Odoo V11 community or enterprise on your system! Congratulations.
Odoo V11

4. Extra information about Odoo 11 Enterprise

Since Odoo Enterprise uses code from both http://github.com/odoo/odoo and http://github.com/odoo/enterprise we will separate the code with this script. This will make future upgrades easier and the code is nicely separated. This means that the default V11 code will be under /odoo/odoo-server/ and all the enterprise code will be under /odoo/enterprise/.

In the script you saw there was an option to change the Odoo port (OE_PORT). When you’d change this port number to 8070 in the install script it would be applied to /etc/your-config-file.conf and this would give you the ability to change the default port.
To apply these changes you should do the following:
Changing Odoo settings
The -c will change the configuration and memorize what you’ve changed under /etc/your-config-file.conf. Because my port was set to 8070 this is telling the Odoo that it should run on port 8070. When you would now open up your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8070/ you will see it is running there:
Odoo V9 alternative port

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