Defining custom settings in Odoo



Unfortunately Odoo documentation doesn’t seem to include any information about adding new configuration options to Odoo. So let’s fill in the gaps.

Defining a model

First of all, you need to define a new model inheriting from ​​res.config.settings​​:

class YourSettings(models.TransientModel):
_inherit = 'res.config.settings'
_name = 'your.config.settings'


It’s a ​​TransientModel​​, also known as a wizard. Do not expect it to permanently hold the values. TransientModels inherently store values on a temporary basis only. You need other means to make them permanent.

Fortunately ​​res.config.settings​​​ makes this easy. First of all, you need to add some fields to your ​​TransientModel​​ - one for every setting option you want to define. Odoo comes with built-in support for four different kinds of settings. It distinguishes between them based on the field names.

“Default” settings

The value of a field named ​​default_foo​​ will be set as a default value for a field named ​​foo​​​ on a model given as a ​​default_model​​ argument.

class YourSettings(models.TransientModel):
_inherit = 'res.config.settings'
_name = 'your.config.settings'

default_name = fields.Char(default_model='your.other.model')


This will make the value of ​​default_name​​​ field the global default value of a field ​​name​​​ in model ​​your.other.model​​.

“Group” settings

Boolean fields named ​​group_foo​​​ take two arguments: ​​group​​​ (defaults to ​​base.group_user​​​) and ​​implied_group​​​. If the value of such field is true, the group defined in ​​group​​​ gain all ​​implied_group​​​’s permissions. This is exactly the same as adding a group to ​​implied_ids​​ field on another group’s object (which as far as I know is also an undocumented feature). This is useful for controlling which groups of users have access to a feature.

class YourSettings(models.TransientModel):
_inherit = 'res.config.settings'
_name = 'your.config.settings'

group_kill = fields.Boolean(
group='your.secret_agents',
implied_group='your.licence_to_kill'
    )


“Module” settings

Boolean fields named ​​module_foo​​​, when enabled will trigger installation of a module named ​​foo​​.

class YourSettings(models.TransientModel):
_inherit = 'res.config.settings'
_name = 'your.config.settings'

# if enabled will install "spies" module
module_spies = fields.Boolean()


Other settings

By default the values of other fields will be discarded, but you change that by implementing your own means of saving them. Just define a method named ​​set_foo​​​(where ​​foo​​​ is an arbitrary string). You can also set initial values of such fields using a ​​get_default_foo​​​ method (the exact form of ​​foo​​ is once again irrelevant).

For example if you want to use settings to control the name and phone number of a company linked to the current user:

class YourSettings(models.TransientModel):
_inherit = 'res.config.settings'
_name = 'your.config.settings'

company_name = fields.Char()
company_phone = fields.Char()

@api.model
def get_default_company_values(self, fields):
"""
    Method argument "fields" is a list of names
    of all available fields.
    """
company = self.env.user.company_id
return {
'company_name': company.name,
'company_phone': company.phone,
        }

@api.one
def set_company_values(self):
company = self.env.user.company_id
company.name = self.company_name
company.phone = self.company_phone


Defining a view

Then you just need to define a view for your settings. Let’s use the previous example:

<record id="your_configuration" model="ir.ui.view">
<field name="name">Your configuration</field>
<field name="model">your.config.settings</field>
<field name="arch" type="xml">
<form string="Your configuration" class="oe_form_configuration">
<header>
<button string="Save" type="object"
name="execute" class="oe_highlight"/>
                or
<button string="Cancel" type="object"
name="cancel" class="oe_link"/>
</header>
<group string="Company">
<label for="id" string="Name & Phone"/>
<div>
<div>
<label for="company_name"/>
<field name="company_name"/>
</div>
<div>
<label for="company_phone"/>
<field name="company_phone"/>
</div>
</div>
</group>
</form>
</field>
</record>
<record id="your_settings_action" model="ir.actions.act_window">
<field name="name">Your configuration</field>
<field name="res_model">your.config.settings</field>
<field name="view_id" ref="your_configuration"/>
<field name="view_mode">form</field>
<field name="target">inline</field>
</record>


…and of course don’t forget to make a new entry in the settings menu:

<menuitem id="your_settings_menu" name="Your settings"
parent="base.menu_config" action="your_settings_action"/>