ORM API

Object Relational Mapping module:

• Hierarchical structure

• Constraints consistency and validation

• Object metadata depends on its status

• Optimised processing by complex query (multiple actions at once)

• Default field values

• Permissions optimisation

• Persistent object: DB postgresql

• Data conversion

• Multi-level caching system

• Two different inheritance mechanisms

• Rich set of field types:

  • classical (varchar, integer, boolean, …)

  • relational (one2many, many2one, many2many)

  • functional

Models

Model fields are defined as attributes on the model itself:

from flectra import models, fields
class AModel(models.Model):
    _name = 'a.model.name'

    field1 = fields.Char()

Warning

this means you cannot define a field and a method with the same name, the last one will silently overwrite the former ones.

By default, the field’s label (user-visible name) is a capitalized version of the field name, this can be overridden with the string parameter.

field2 = fields.Integer(string="Field Label")

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

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

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

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

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

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

API

class flectra.models.BaseModel

Base class for Flectra models.

Flectra models are created by inheriting one of the following:

• Model for regular database-persisted models

• TransientModel for temporary data, stored in the database but automatically vacuumed every so often

• AbstractModel for abstract super classes meant to be shared by multiple inheriting models

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

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

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

_auto = False

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

Automatically defaults to True for Model and TransientModel, False for AbstractModel.

Tip

To create a model without any table, inherit from AbstractModel.

_log_access

Whether the ORM should automatically generate and update the Access Log fields.

Defaults to whatever value was set for _auto.

_table = None

SQL table name used by model if _auto

_sequence = None

SQL sequence to use for ID field

_sql_constraints = []

SQL constraints [(name, sql_def, message)]

_register = True

registry visibility

_abstract = True

Whether the model is abstract.

See also

AbstractModel

_transient = False

Whether the model is transient.

See also

TransientModel

_name = None

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

_description = None

the model’s informal name

_inherit = None

Python-inherited models:

Type

str or list(str)

Note

• If _name is set, name(s) of parent models to inherit from

• If _name is unset, name of a single model to extend in-place

_inherits = {}

dictionary {‘parent_model’: ‘m2o_field’} mapping the _name of the parent business objects to the names of the corresponding foreign key fields to use:

_inherits = {
    'a.model': 'a_field_id',
    'b.model': 'b_field_id'
}

implements composition-based inheritance: the new model exposes all the fields of the inherited models but stores none of them: the values themselves remain stored on the linked record.

Warning

if multiple fields with the same name are defined in the _inherits-ed models, the inherited field will correspond to the last one (in the inherits list order).

_rec_name = None

field to use for labeling records, default: name

_order = 'id'

default order field for searching results

_check_company_auto = False

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

_parent_name = 'parent_id'

the many2one field used as parent field

_parent_store = False

set to True to compute parent_path field.

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

_date_name = 'date'

field to use for default calendar view

_fold_name = 'fold'

field to determine folded groups in kanban views

AbstractModel

flectra.models.AbstractModel

alias of flectra.models.BaseModel

Model

class flectra.models.Model

Main super-class for regular database-persisted Flectra models.

Flectra models are created by inheriting from this class:

class user(Model):
    ...

The system will later instantiate the class once per database (on which the class’ module is installed).

_auto = True

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

Automatically defaults to True for Model and TransientModel, False for AbstractModel.

Tip

To create a model without any table, inherit from AbstractModel.

_abstract = False

Whether the model is abstract.

See also

AbstractModel

_transient = False

Whether the model is transient.

See also

TransientModel

TransientModel

class flectra.models.TransientModel

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

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

_auto = True

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

Automatically defaults to True for Model and TransientModel, False for AbstractModel.

Tip

To create a model without any table, inherit from AbstractModel.

_abstract = False

Whether the model is abstract.

See also

AbstractModel

_transient = True

Whether the model is transient.

See also

TransientModel

Fields

class flectra.fields.Field

The field descriptor contains the field definition, and manages accesses and assignments of the corresponding field on records. The following attributes may be provided when instanciating a field:

Parameters

• string (str) – the label of the field seen by users; if not set, the ORM takes the field name in the class (capitalized).

• help (str) – the tooltip of the field seen by users

• invisible – whether the field is invisible (boolean, by default False)

• readonly (bool) –

  whether the field is readonly (default: False)

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

• required (bool) – whether the value of the field is required (default: False)

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

• default (value or callable) – the default value for the field; this is either a static value, or a function taking a recordset and returning a value; use default=None to discard default values for the field

• states (dict) –

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

  Warning

  Any state-based condition requires the state field value to be available on the client-side UI. This is typically done by including it in the relevant views, possibly made invisible if not relevant for the end-user.

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

• company_dependent (bool) –

  whether the field value is dependent of the current company;

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

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

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

• copy (bool) – whether the field value should be copied when the record is duplicated (default: True for normal fields, False for one2many and computed fields, including property fields and related fields)

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

• group_operator (str) –

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

  Supported aggregate functions are:

  • array_agg : values, including nulls, concatenated into an array

  • count : number of rows

  • count_distinct : number of distinct rows

  • bool_and : true if all values are true, otherwise false

  • bool_or : true if at least one value is true, otherwise false

  • max : maximum value of all values

  • min : minimum value of all values

  • avg : the average (arithmetic mean) of all values

  • sum : sum of all values

• group_expand (str) –

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

  @api.model
  def _read_group_selection_field(self, values, domain, order):
      return ['choice1', 'choice2', ...] # available selection choices.
  
  @api.model
  def _read_group_many2one_field(self, records, domain, order):
      return records + self.search([custom_domain])
  

Computed Fields

Parameters

• compute (str) –

  name of a method that computes the field

  See also

  Advanced Fields/Compute fields

• compute_sudo (bool) – whether the field should be recomputed as superuser to bypass access rights (by default True for stored fields, False for non stored fields)

• inverse (str) – name of a method that inverses the field (optional)

• search (str) – name of a method that implement search on the field (optional)

• related (str) –

  sequence of field names

  See also

  Advanced fields/Related fields

Basic Fields

class flectra.fields.Boolean

Encapsulates a bool.

class flectra.fields.Char

Basic string field, can be length-limited, usually displayed as a single-line string in clients.

Parameters

• size (int) – the maximum size of values stored for that field

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

• translate (bool or callable) – enable the translation of the field’s values; use translate=True to translate field values as a whole; translate may also be a callable such that translate(callback, value) translates value by using callback(term) to retrieve the translation of terms.

class flectra.fields.Float

Encapsulates a float.

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

Parameters

digits (tuple(int,int) or str) – a pair (total, decimal) or a string referencing a DecimalPrecision record name.

When a float is a quantity associated with an unit of measure, it is important to use the right tool to compare or round values with the correct precision.

The Float class provides some static methods for this purpose:

round() to round a float with the given precision. is_zero() to check if a float equals zero at the given precision. compare() to compare two floats at the given precision.

Example

To round a quantity with the precision of the unit of mesure:

fields.Float.round(self.product_uom_qty, precision_rounding=self.product_uom_id.rounding)

To check if the quantity is zero with the precision of the unit of mesure:

fields.Float.is_zero(self.product_uom_qty, precision_rounding=self.product_uom_id.rounding)

To compare two quantities:

field.Float.compare(self.product_uom_qty, self.qty_done, precision_rounding=self.product_uom_id.rounding)

The compare helper uses the __cmp__ semantics for historic purposes, therefore the proper, idiomatic way to use this helper is like so:

if result == 0, the first and second floats are equal if result < 0, the first float is lower than the second if result > 0, the first float is greater than the second

class flectra.fields.Integer

Encapsulates an int.

Advanced Fields

class flectra.fields.Binary

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

Parameters

attachment (bool) – whether the field should be stored as ir_attachment or in a column of the model’s table (default: True).

class flectra.fields.Html

Encapsulates an html code content.

Parameters

• sanitize (bool) – whether value must be sanitized (default: True)

• sanitize_tags (bool) – whether to sanitize tags (only a white list of attributes is accepted, default: True)

• sanitize_attributes (bool) – whether to sanitize attributes (only a white list of attributes is accepted, default: True)

• sanitize_style (bool) – whether to sanitize style attributes (default: False)

• strip_style (bool) – whether to strip style attributes (removed and therefore not sanitized, default: False)

• strip_classes (bool) – whether to strip classes attributes (default: False)

class flectra.fields.Image

Encapsulates an image, extending Binary.

If image size is greater than the max_width/max_height limit of pixels, the image will be resized to the limit by keeping aspect ratio.

Parameters

• max_width (int) – the maximum width of the image (default: 0, no limit)

• max_height (int) – the maximum height of the image (default: 0, no limit)

• verify_resolution (bool) – whether the image resolution should be verified to ensure it doesn’t go over the maximum image resolution (default: True). See flectra.tools.image.ImageProcess for maximum image resolution (default: 45e6).

Note

If no max_width/max_height is specified (or is set to 0) and verify_resolution is False, the field content won’t be verified at all and a Binary field should be used.

class flectra.fields.Monetary

Encapsulates a float expressed in a given res_currency.

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

Parameters

currency_field (str) – name of the Many2one field holding the res_currency this monetary field is expressed in (default: 'currency_id')

class flectra.fields.Selection

Encapsulates an exclusive choice between different values.

Parameters

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

• selection_add (list(tuple(str,str))) –

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

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

• ondelete –

  provides a fallback mechanism for any overridden field with a selection_add. It is a dict that maps every option from the selection_add to a fallback action.

  This fallback action will be applied to all records whose selection_add option maps to it.

  The actions can be any of the following:

  • ’set null’ – the default, all records with this option will have their selection value set to False.

  • ’cascade’ – all records with this option will be deleted along with the option itself.

  • ’set default’ – all records with this option will be set to the default of the field definition

  • <callable> – a callable whose first and only argument will be the set of records containing the specified Selection option, for custom processing

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

class flectra.fields.Text

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

Parameters

translate (bool or callable) – enable the translation of the field’s values; use translate=True to translate field values as a whole; translate may also be a callable such that translate(callback, value) translates value by using callback(term) to retrieve the translation of terms.

Date(time) Fields

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

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

• A date or datetime object.

• A string in the proper server format:

  • YYYY-MM-DD for Date fields,

  • YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS for Datetime fields.

• False or None.

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

• to_date() will convert to a datetime.date

• to_datetime() will convert to a datetime.datetime.

Example

To parse date/datetimes coming from external sources:

fields.Date.to_date(self._context.get('date_from'))

Date / Datetime comparison best practices:

• Date fields can only be compared to date objects.

• Datetime fields can only be compared to datetime objects.

Warning

Strings representing dates and datetimes can be compared between each other, however the result may not be the expected result, as a datetime string will always be greater than a date string, therefore this practice is heavily discouraged.

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

Note

Timezones

Datetime fields are stored as timestamp without timezone columns in the database and are stored in the UTC timezone. This is by design, as it makes the Flectra database independent from the timezone of the hosting server system. Timezone conversion is managed entirely by the client side.

class flectra.fields.Date

Encapsulates a python date object.

static add(value, *args, **kwargs)

Return the sum of value and a relativedelta.

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.

• kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.

Returns

the resulting date/datetime.

static context_today(record, timestamp=None)

Return the current date as seen in the client’s timezone in a format fit for date fields.

Note

This method may be used to compute default values.

Parameters

• record – recordset from which the timezone will be obtained.

• timestamp (datetime) – optional datetime value to use instead of the current date and time (must be a datetime, regular dates can’t be converted between timezones).

Return type

date

static end_of(value, granularity)

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

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• granularity – Type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.

Returns

A date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.

static start_of(value, granularity)

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

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• granularity – type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.

Returns

a date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.

static subtract(value, *args, **kwargs)

Return the difference between value and a relativedelta.

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.

• kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.

Returns

the resulting date/datetime.

static to_date(value)

Attempt to convert value to a date object.

Warning

If a datetime object is given as value, it will be converted to a date object and all datetime-specific information will be lost (HMS, TZ, …).

Parameters

value (str or date or datetime) – value to convert.

Returns

an object representing value.

Return type

date or None

static to_string(value)

Convert a date or datetime object to a string.

Parameters

value – value to convert.

Returns

a string representing value in the server’s date format, if value is of type datetime, the hours, minute, seconds, tzinfo will be truncated.

Return type

str

static today(*args)

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

Note

This function may be used to compute default values.

class flectra.fields.Datetime

Encapsulates a python datetime object.

static add(value, *args, **kwargs)

Return the sum of value and a relativedelta.

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.

• kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.

Returns

the resulting date/datetime.

static context_timestamp(record, timestamp)

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

Note

This method is not meant for use as a default initializer, because datetime fields are automatically converted upon display on client side. For default values, now() should be used instead.

Parameters

• record – recordset from which the timezone will be obtained.

• timestamp (datetime) – naive datetime value (expressed in UTC) to be converted to the client timezone.

Returns

timestamp converted to timezone-aware datetime in context timezone.

Return type

datetime

static end_of(value, granularity)

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

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• granularity – Type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.

Returns

A date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.

static now(*args)

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

Note

This function may be used to compute default values.

static start_of(value, granularity)

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

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• granularity – type of period in string, can be year, quarter, month, week, day or hour.

Returns

a date/datetime object corresponding to the start of the specified period.

static subtract(value, *args, **kwargs)

Return the difference between value and a relativedelta.

Parameters

• value – initial date or datetime.

• args – positional args to pass directly to relativedelta.

• kwargs – keyword args to pass directly to relativedelta.

Returns

the resulting date/datetime.

static to_datetime(value)

Convert an ORM value into a datetime value.

Parameters

value (str or date or datetime) – value to convert.

Returns

an object representing value.

Return type

datetime or None

static to_string(value)

Convert a datetime or date object to a string.

Parameters

value (datetime or date) – value to convert.

Returns

a string representing value in the server’s datetime format, if value is of type date, the time portion will be midnight (00:00:00).

Return type

str

static today(*args)

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

Relational Fields

class flectra.fields.Many2one

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

Parameters

• comodel_name (str) – name of the target model Mandatory except for related or extended fields.

• domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)

• context (dict) – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field

• ondelete (str) – what to do when the referred record is deleted; possible values are: 'set null', 'restrict', 'cascade'

• auto_join (bool) – whether JOINs are generated upon search through that field (default: False)

• delegate (bool) – set it to True to make fields of the target model accessible from the current model (corresponds to _inherits)

• check_company (bool) – Mark the field to be verified in _check_company(). Add a default company domain depending on the field attributes.

class flectra.fields.One2many

One2many field; the value of such a field is the recordset of all the records in comodel_name such that the field inverse_name is equal to the current record.

Parameters

• comodel_name (str) – name of the target model

• inverse_name (str) – name of the inverse Many2one field in comodel_name

• domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)

• context (dict) – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field

• auto_join (bool) – whether JOINs are generated upon search through that field (default: False)

• limit (int) – optional limit to use upon read

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

class flectra.fields.Many2many

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

Parameters

• comodel_name – name of the target model (string) mandatory except in the case of related or extended fields

• relation (str) – optional name of the table that stores the relation in the database

• column1 (str) – optional name of the column referring to “these” records in the table relation

• column2 (str) – optional name of the column referring to “those” records in the table relation

The attributes relation, column1 and column2 are optional. If not given, names are automatically generated from model names, provided model_name and comodel_name are different!

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

• both fields use the same model, comodel, and relation parameters are explicit; or

• at least one field belongs to a model with _auto = False.

Parameters

• domain – an optional domain to set on candidate values on the client side (domain or string)

• context (dict) – an optional context to use on the client side when handling that field

• check_company (bool) – Mark the field to be verified in _check_company(). Add a default company domain depending on the field attributes.

• limit (int) – optional limit to use upon read

Pseudo-relational fields

class flectra.fields.Reference

Pseudo-relational field (no FK in database).

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

class flectra.fields.Many2oneReference

Pseudo-relational field (no FK in database).

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

Contrary to Reference fields, the model has to be specified in a Char field, whose name has to be specified in the model_field attribute for the current Many2oneReference field.

Parameters

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

Computed Fields

Fields can be computed (instead of read straight from the database) using the compute parameter. It must assign the computed value to the field. If it uses the values of other fields, it should specify those fields using depends().

from flectra import api
total = fields.Float(compute='_compute_total')

@api.depends('value', 'tax')
def _compute_total(self):
    for record in self:
        record.total = record.value + record.value * record.tax

• dependencies can be dotted paths when using sub-fields:

  @api.depends('line_ids.value')
  def _compute_total(self):
      for record in self:
          record.total = sum(line.value for line in record.line_ids)
  

• computed fields are not stored by default, they are computed and returned when requested. Setting store=True will store them in the database and automatically enable searching.

• searching on a computed field can also be enabled by setting the search parameter. The value is a method name returning a Search domains.

  upper_name = field.Char(compute='_compute_upper', search='_search_upper')
  
  def _search_upper(self, operator, value):
      if operator == 'like':
          operator = 'ilike'
      return [('name', operator, value)]
  

  The search method is invoked when processing domains before doing an actual search on the model. It must return a domain equivalent to the condition: field operator value.

• Computed fields are readonly by default. To allow setting values on a computed field, use the inverse parameter. It is the name of a function reversing the computation and setting the relevant fields:

  document = fields.Char(compute='_get_document', inverse='_set_document')
  
  def _get_document(self):
      for record in self:
          with open(record.get_document_path) as f:
              record.document = f.read()
  def _set_document(self):
      for record in self:
          if not record.document: continue
          with open(record.get_document_path()) as f:
              f.write(record.document)
  

• multiple fields can be computed at the same time by the same method, just use the same method on all fields and set all of them:

  discount_value = fields.Float(compute='_apply_discount')
  total = fields.Float(compute='_apply_discount')
  
  @api.depends('value', 'discount')
  def _apply_discount(self):
      for record in self:
          # compute actual discount from discount percentage
          discount = record.value * record.discount
          record.discount_value = discount
          record.total = record.value - discount
  

Warning

While it is possible to use the same compute method for multiple fields, it is not recommended to do the same for the inverse method.

During the computation of the inverse, all fields that use said inverse are protected, meaning that they can’t be computed, even if their value is not in the cache.

If any of those fields is accessed and its value is not in cache, the ORM will simply return a default value of False for these fields. This means that the value of the inverse fields (other than the one triggering the inverse method) may not give their correct value and this will probably break the expected behavior of the inverse method.

Related fields

A special case of computed fields are related (proxy) fields, which provide the value of a sub-field on the current record. They are defined by setting the related parameter and like regular computed fields they can be stored:

nickname = fields.Char(related='user_id.partner_id.name', store=True)

The value of a related field is given by following a sequence of relational fields and reading a field on the reached model. The complete sequence of fields to traverse is specified by the related attribute.

Some field attributes are automatically copied from the source field if they are not redefined: string, help, readonly, required (only if all fields in the sequence are required), groups, digits, size, translate, sanitize, selection, comodel_name, domain, context. All semantic-free attributes are copied from the source field.

By default, the values of related fields are not stored to the database. Add the attribute store=True to make it stored, just like computed fields. Related fields are automatically recomputed when their dependencies are modified.

Note

The related fields are computed in sudo mode.

Warning

You cannot chain Many2many or One2many fields in related fields dependencies.

related can be used to refer to a One2many or Many2many field on another model on the condition that it’s done through a Many2one relation on the current model. One2many and Many2many are not supported and the results will not be aggregated correctly:

m2o_id = fields.Many2one()
m2m_ids = fields.Many2many()
o2m_ids = fields.One2many()

# Supported
d_ids = fields.Many2many(related="m2o_id.m2m_ids")
e_ids = fields.One2many(related="m2o_id.o2m_ids")

# Won't work: use a custom Many2many computed field instead
f_ids = fields.Many2many(related="m2m_ids.m2m_ids")
g_ids = fields.One2many(related="o2m_ids.o2m_ids")

Automatic fields

flectra.fields.id

Identifier field

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

Raise an Error otherwise.

Access Log fields

These fields are automatically set and updated if _log_access is enabled. It can be disabled to avoid creating or updating those fields on tables for which they are not useful.

By default, _log_access is set to the same value as _auto

flectra.fields.create_date

Stores when the record was created, Datetime

flectra.fields.create_uid

Stores who created the record, Many2one to a res.users.

flectra.fields.write_date

Stores when the record was last updated, Datetime

flectra.fields.write_uid

Stores who last updated the record, Many2one to a res.users.

Warning

_log_access must be enabled on TransientModel.

Reserved Field names

A few field names are reserved for pre-defined behaviors beyond that of automated fields. They should be defined on a model when the related behavior is desired:

flectra.fields.name

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

Char

flectra.fields.active

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

Boolean

flectra.fields.state

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

Selection

flectra.fields.parent_id

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

Many2one

flectra.fields.parent_path

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

Char

flectra.fields.company_id

Main field name used for Flectra multi-company behavior.

Used by :meth:~flectra.models._check_company to check multi company consistency. Defines whether a record is shared between companies (no value) or only accessible by the users of a given company.

Many2one :type: res_company

Recordsets

Interactions with models and records are performed through recordsets, an ordered collection of records of the same model.

Warning

Contrary to what the name implies, it is currently possible for recordsets to contain duplicates. This may change in the future.

Methods defined on a model are executed on a recordset, and their self is a recordset:

class AModel(models.Model):
    _name = 'a.model'
    def a_method(self):
        # self can be anything between 0 records and all records in the
        # database
        self.do_operation()

Iterating on a recordset will yield new sets of a single record (“singletons”), much like iterating on a Python string yields strings of a single characters:

def do_operation(self):
    print(self) # => a.model(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
    for record in self:
        print(record) # => a.model(1), then a.model(2), then a.model(3), ...

Field access

Recordsets provide an “Active Record” interface: model fields can be read and written directly from the record as attributes.

Note

When accessing non-relational fields on a recordset of potentially multiple records, use mapped():

total_qty = sum(self.mapped('qty'))

Field values can also be accessed like dict items, which is more elegant and safer than getattr() for dynamic field names. Setting a field’s value triggers an update to the database:

>>> record.name
Example Name
>>> record.company_id.name
Company Name
>>> record.name = "Bob"
>>> field = "name"
>>> record[field]
Bob

Warning

Trying to read a field on multiple records will raise an error for non relational fields.

Accessing a relational field (Many2one, One2many, Many2many) always returns a recordset, empty if the field is not set.

Record cache and prefetching

Flectra maintains a cache for the fields of the records, so that not every field access issues a database request, which would be terrible for performance. The following example queries the database only for the first statement:

record.name             # first access reads value from database
record.name             # second access gets value from cache

To avoid reading one field on one record at a time, Flectra prefetches records and fields following some heuristics to get good performance. Once a field must be read on a given record, the ORM actually reads that field on a larger recordset, and stores the returned values in cache for later use. The prefetched recordset is usually the recordset from which the record comes by iteration. Moreover, all simple stored fields (boolean, integer, float, char, text, date, datetime, selection, many2one) are fetched altogether; they correspond to the columns of the model’s table, and are fetched efficiently in the same query.

Consider the following example, where partners is a recordset of 1000 records. Without prefetching, the loop would make 2000 queries to the database. With prefetching, only one query is made:

for partner in partners:
    print partner.name          # first pass prefetches 'name' and 'lang'
                                # (and other fields) on all 'partners'
    print partner.lang

The prefetching also works on secondary records: when relational fields are read, their values (which are records) are subscribed for future prefetching. Accessing one of those secondary records prefetches all secondary records from the same model. This makes the following example generate only two queries, one for partners and one for countries:

countries = set()
for partner in partners:
    country = partner.country_id        # first pass prefetches all partners
    countries.add(country.name)         # first pass prefetches all countries

Method decorators

The Flectra API module defines Flectra Environments and method decorators.

flectra.api.autovacuum(method)

Decorate a method so that it is called by the daily vacuum cron job (model ir.autovacuum). This is typically used for garbage-collection-like tasks that do not deserve a specific cron job.

flectra.api.constrains(*args)

Decorate a constraint checker.

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

@api.constrains('name', 'description')
def _check_description(self):
    for record in self:
        if record.name == record.description:
            raise ValidationError("Fields name and description must be different")

Invoked on the records on which one of the named fields has been modified.

Should raise ValidationError if the validation failed.

Warning

@constrains only supports simple field names, dotted names (fields of relational fields e.g. partner_id.customer) are not supported and will be ignored.

@constrains will be triggered only if the declared fields in the decorated method are included in the create or write call. It implies that fields not present in a view will not trigger a call during a record creation. A override of create is necessary to make sure a constraint will always be triggered (e.g. to test the absence of value).

flectra.api.depends(*args)

Return a decorator that specifies the field dependencies of a “compute” method (for new-style function fields). Each argument must be a string that consists in a dot-separated sequence of field names:

pname = fields.Char(compute='_compute_pname')

@api.depends('partner_id.name', 'partner_id.is_company')
def _compute_pname(self):
    for record in self:
        if record.partner_id.is_company:
            record.pname = (record.partner_id.name or "").upper()
        else:
            record.pname = record.partner_id.name

One may also pass a single function as argument. In that case, the dependencies are given by calling the function with the field’s model.

flectra.api.depends_context(*args)

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

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

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

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

• company (value in context or current company id),

• uid (current user id and superuser flag),

• active_test (value in env.context or value in field.context).

flectra.api.model(method)

Decorate a record-style method where self is a recordset, but its contents is not relevant, only the model is. Such a method:

@api.model
def method(self, args):
    ...

flectra.api.model_create_multi(method)

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

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

flectra.api.onchange(*args)

Return a decorator to decorate an onchange method for given fields.

In the form views where the field appears, the method will be called when one of the given fields is modified. The method is invoked on a pseudo-record that contains the values present in the form. Field assignments on that record are automatically sent back to the client.

Each argument must be a field name:

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

return {
    'warning': {'title': "Warning", 'message': "What is this?", 'type': 'notification'},
}

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

Warning

@onchange only supports simple field names, dotted names (fields of relational fields e.g. partner_id.tz) are not supported and will be ignored

Danger

Since @onchange returns a recordset of pseudo-records, calling any one of the CRUD methods (create(), read(), write(), unlink()) on the aforementioned recordset is undefined behaviour, as they potentially do not exist in the database yet.

Instead, simply set the record’s field like shown in the example above or call the update() method.

Warning

It is not possible for a one2many or many2many field to modify itself via onchange. This is a webclient limitation - see #2693.

flectra.api.returns(model, downgrade=None, upgrade=None)

Return a decorator for methods that return instances of model.

Parameters

• model – a model name, or 'self' for the current model

• downgrade – a function downgrade(self, value, *args, **kwargs) to convert the record-style value to a traditional-style output

• upgrade – a function upgrade(self, value, *args, **kwargs) to convert the traditional-style value to a record-style output

The arguments self, *args and **kwargs are the ones passed to the method in the record-style.

The decorator adapts the method output to the api style: id, ids or False for the traditional style, and recordset for the record style:

@model
@returns('res.partner')
def find_partner(self, arg):
    ...     # return some record

# output depends on call style: traditional vs record style
partner_id = model.find_partner(cr, uid, arg, context=context)

# recs = model.browse(cr, uid, ids, context)
partner_record = recs.find_partner(arg)

Note that the decorated method must satisfy that convention.

Those decorators are automatically inherited: a method that overrides a decorated existing method will be decorated with the same @returns(model).

Environment

The Environment stores various contextual data used by the ORM: the database cursor (for database queries), the current user (for access rights checking) and the current context (storing arbitrary metadata). The environment also stores caches.

All recordsets have an environment, which is immutable, can be accessed using env and gives access to:

• the current user (user)

• the cursor (cr)

• the superuser flag (su)

• or the context (context)

>>> records.env
<Environment object ...>
>>> records.env.user
res.user(3)
>>> records.env.cr
<Cursor object ...)

When creating a recordset from an other recordset, the environment is inherited. The environment can be used to get an empty recordset in an other model, and query that model:

>>> self.env['res.partner']
res.partner()
>>> self.env['res.partner'].search([['is_company', '=', True], ['customer', '=', True]])
res.partner(7, 18, 12, 14, 17, 19, 8, 31, 26, 16, 13, 20, 30, 22, 29, 15, 23, 28, 74)

Environment.ref(xml_id, raise_if_not_found=True)

Return the record corresponding to the given xml_id.

Environment.lang

Return the current language code.

Return type

str

Environment.user

Return the current user (as an instance).

Return type

res_users

Environment.company

Return the current company (as an instance).

If not specified in the context (allowed_company_ids), fallback on current user main company.

Raises

AccessError – invalid or unauthorized allowed_company_ids context key content.

Returns

current company (default=`self.user.company_id`)

Return type

res.company

Warning

No sanity checks applied in sudo mode ! When in sudo mode, a user can access any company, even if not in his allowed companies.

This allows to trigger inter-company modifications, even if the current user doesn’t have access to the targeted company.

Environment.companies

Return a recordset of the enabled companies by the user.

If not specified in the context(allowed_company_ids), fallback on current user companies.

Raises

AccessError – invalid or unauthorized allowed_company_ids context key content.

Returns

current companies (default=`self.user.company_ids`)

Return type

res.company

Warning

No sanity checks applied in sudo mode ! When in sudo mode, a user can access any company, even if not in his allowed companies.

This allows to trigger inter-company modifications, even if the current user doesn’t have access to the targeted company.

Altering the environment

Model.with_context([context][, **overrides]) → records

Returns a new version of this recordset attached to an extended context.

The extended context is either the provided context in which overrides are merged or the current context in which overrides are merged e.g.:

# current context is {'key1': True}
r2 = records.with_context({}, key2=True)
# -> r2._context is {'key2': True}
r2 = records.with_context(key2=True)
# -> r2._context is {'key1': True, 'key2': True}

Model.with_user(user)

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

Model.with_company(company)

Return a new version of this recordset with a modified context, such that:

result.env.company = company
result.env.companies = self.env.companies | company

Parameters

company (res_company or int) – main company of the new environment.

Warning

When using an unauthorized company for current user, accessing the company(ies) on the environment may trigger an AccessError if not done in a sudoed environment.

Model.with_env(env)

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

Parameters

env (Environment) –

Warning

The new environment will not benefit from the current environment’s data cache, so later data access may incur extra delays while re-fetching from the database. The returned recordset has the same prefetch object as self.

Model.sudo([flag=True])

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

Warning

Using sudo could cause data access to cross the boundaries of record rules, possibly mixing records that are meant to be isolated (e.g. records from different companies in multi-company environments).

It may lead to un-intuitive results in methods which select one record among many - for example getting the default company, or selecting a Bill of Materials.

Note

Because the record rules and access control will have to be re-evaluated, the new recordset will not benefit from the current environment’s data cache, so later data access may incur extra delays while re-fetching from the database. The returned recordset has the same prefetch object as self.

SQL Execution

The cr attribute on environments is the cursor for the current database transaction and allows executing SQL directly, either for queries which are difficult to express using the ORM (e.g. complex joins) or for performance reasons:

self.env.cr.execute("some_sql", params)

Because models use the same cursor and the Environment holds various caches, these caches must be invalidated when altering the database in raw SQL, or further uses of models may become incoherent. It is necessary to clear caches when using CREATE, UPDATE or DELETE in SQL, but not SELECT (which simply reads the database).

Note

Clearing caches can be performed using the invalidate_cache() method.

Model.invalidate_cache(fnames=None, ids=None)

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

Parameters

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

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

Warning

Executing raw SQL bypasses the ORM, and by consequent, Flectra security rules. Please make sure your queries are sanitized when using user input and prefer using ORM utilities if you don’t really need to use SQL queries.

Common ORM methods

Create/update

Model.create(vals_list) → records

Creates new records for the model.

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

Parameters

vals_list (list) –

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

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

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

see write() for details

Returns

the created records

Raises

• AccessError –

  • if user has no create rights on the requested object

  • if user tries to bypass access rules for create on the requested object

• ValidationError – if user tries to enter invalid value for a field that is not in selection

• UserError – if a loop would be created in a hierarchy of objects a result of the operation (such as setting an object as its own parent)

Model.copy(default=None)

Duplicate record self updating it with default values

Parameters

default (dict) – dictionary of field values to override in the original values of the copied record, e.g: {'field_name': overridden_value, ...}

Returns

new record

Model.default_get(fields_list) → default_values

Return default values for the fields in fields_list. Default values are determined by the context, user defaults, and the model itself.

Parameters

fields_list (list) – names of field whose default is requested

Returns

a dictionary mapping field names to their corresponding default values, if they have a default value.

Return type

dict

Note

Unrequested defaults won’t be considered, there is no need to return a value for fields whose names are not in fields_list.

Model.name_create(name) → record

Create a new record by calling create() with only one value provided: the display name of the new record.

The new record will be initialized with any default values applicable to this model, or provided through the context. The usual behavior of create() applies.

Parameters

name – display name of the record to create

Return type

tuple

Returns

the name_get() pair value of the created record

Model.write(vals)

Updates all records in the current set with the provided values.

Parameters

vals (dict) –

fields to update and the value to set on them e.g:

{'foo': 1, 'bar': "Qux"}

will set the field foo to 1 and the field bar to "Qux" if those are valid (otherwise it will trigger an error).

Raises

• AccessError –

  • if user has no write rights on the requested object

  • if user tries to bypass access rules for write on the requested object

• ValidationError – if user tries to enter invalid value for a field that is not in selection

• UserError – if a loop would be created in a hierarchy of objects a result of the operation (such as setting an object as its own parent)

• For numeric fields (Integer, Float) the value should be of the corresponding type

• For Boolean, the value should be a bool

• For Selection, the value should match the selection values (generally str, sometimes int)

• For Many2one, the value should be the database identifier of the record to set

• Other non-relational fields use a string for value

  Danger

  for historical and compatibility reasons, Date and Datetime fields use strings as values (written and read) rather than date or datetime. These date strings are UTC-only and formatted according to flectra.tools.misc.DEFAULT_SERVER_DATE_FORMAT and flectra.tools.misc.DEFAULT_SERVER_DATETIME_FORMAT

• One2many and Many2many use a special “commands” format to manipulate the set of records stored in/associated with the field.

  This format is a list of triplets executed sequentially, where each triplet is a command to execute on the set of records. Not all commands apply in all situations. Possible commands are:

  (0, 0, values)

  adds a new record created from the provided value dict.

  (1, id, values)

  updates an existing record of id id with the values in values. Can not be used in create().

  (2, id, 0)

  removes the record of id id from the set, then deletes it (from the database). Can not be used in create().

  (3, id, 0)

  removes the record of id id from the set, but does not delete it. Can not be used in create().

  (4, id, 0)

  adds an existing record of id id to the set.

  (5, 0, 0)

  removes all records from the set, equivalent to using the command 3 on every record explicitly. Can not be used in create().

  (6, 0, ids)

  replaces all existing records in the set by the ids list, equivalent to using the command 5 followed by a command 4 for each id in ids.

Model.flush(fnames=None, records=None)

Process all the pending computations (on all models), and flush all the pending updates to the database.

Parameters

• (list<str>) (fnames) – list of field names to flush. If given, limit the processing to the given fields of the current model.

• (Model) (records) – if given (together with fnames), limit the processing to the given records.

Search/Read

Model.browse([ids]) → records

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

self.browse([7, 18, 12])
res.partner(7, 18, 12)

Parameters

ids (int or list(int) or None) – id(s)

Returns

recordset

Model.search(args[, offset=0][, limit=None][, order=None][, count=False])

Searches for records based on the args search domain.

Parameters

• args – A search domain. Use an empty list to match all records.

• offset (int) – number of results to ignore (default: none)

• limit (int) – maximum number of records to return (default: all)

• order (str) – sort string

• count (bool) – if True, only counts and returns the number of matching records (default: False)

Returns

at most limit records matching the search criteria

Raises

AccessError –

• if user tries to bypass access rules for read on the requested object.

Model.search_count(args) → int

Returns the number of records in the current model matching the provided domain.

Model.name_search(name='', args=None, operator='ilike', limit=100) → records

Search for records that have a display name matching the given name pattern when compared with the given operator, while also matching the optional search domain (args).

This is used for example to provide suggestions based on a partial value for a relational field. Sometimes be seen as the inverse function of name_get(), but it is not guaranteed to be.

This method is equivalent to calling search() with a search domain based on display_name and then name_get() on the result of the search.

Parameters

• name (str) – the name pattern to match

• args (list) – optional search domain (see search() for syntax), specifying further restrictions

• operator (str) – domain operator for matching name, such as 'like' or '='.

• limit (int) – optional max number of records to return

Return type

list

Returns

list of pairs (id, text_repr) for all matching records.

Model.read([fields])

Reads the requested fields for the records in self, low-level/RPC method. In Python code, prefer browse().

Parameters

fields – list of field names to return (default is all fields)

Returns

a list of dictionaries mapping field names to their values, with one dictionary per record

Raises

AccessError – if user has no read rights on some of the given records

Model.read_group(domain, fields, groupby, offset=0, limit=None, orderby=False, lazy=True)

Get the list of records in list view grouped by the given groupby fields.

Parameters

• domain (list) – A search domain. Use an empty list to match all records.

• fields (list) – list of fields present in the list view specified on the object. Each element is either ‘field’ (field name, using the default aggregation), or ‘field:agg’ (aggregate field with aggregation function ‘agg’), or ‘name:agg(field)’ (aggregate field with ‘agg’ and return it as ‘name’). The possible aggregation functions are the ones provided by PostgreSQL (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-aggregate.html) and ‘count_distinct’, with the expected meaning.

• groupby (list) – list of groupby descriptions by which the records will be grouped. A groupby description is either a field (then it will be grouped by that field) or a string ‘field:groupby_function’. Right now, the only functions supported are ‘day’, ‘week’, ‘month’, ‘quarter’ or ‘year’, and they only make sense for date/datetime fields.

• offset (int) – optional number of records to skip

• limit (int) – optional max number of records to return

• orderby (str) – optional order by specification, for overriding the natural sort ordering of the groups, see also search() (supported only for many2one fields currently)

• lazy (bool) – if true, the results are only grouped by the first groupby and the remaining groupbys are put in the __context key. If false, all the groupbys are done in one call.

Returns

list of dictionaries(one dictionary for each record) containing:

• the values of fields grouped by the fields in groupby argument

• __domain: list of tuples specifying the search criteria

• __context: dictionary with argument like groupby

Return type

[{‘field_name_1’: value, …]

Raises

AccessError –

• if user has no read rights on the requested object

• if user tries to bypass access rules for read on the requested object

Fields/Views

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

Return the definition of each field.

The returned value is a dictionary (indexed by field name) of dictionaries. The _inherits’d fields are included. The string, help, and selection (if present) attributes are translated.

Parameters

• allfields – list of fields to document, all if empty or not provided

• attributes – list of description attributes to return for each field, all if empty or not provided

Model.fields_view_get([view_id | view_type='form'])

Get the detailed composition of the requested view like fields, model, view architecture

Parameters

• view_id (int) – id of the view or None

• view_type (str) – type of the view to return if view_id is None (‘form’, ‘tree’, …)

• toolbar (bool) – true to include contextual actions

• submenu – deprecated

Returns

composition of the requested view (including inherited views and extensions)

Return type

dict

Raises

• AttributeError –

  • if the inherited view has unknown position to work with other than ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘inside’, ‘replace’

  • if some tag other than ‘position’ is found in parent view

• Invalid ArchitectureError – if there is view type other than form, tree, calendar, search etc defined on the structure

Search domains

A domain is a list of criteria, each criterion being a triple (either a list or a tuple) of (field_name, operator, value) where:

• field_name (str)

  a field name of the current model, or a relationship traversal through a Many2one using dot-notation e.g. 'street' or 'partner_id.country'

• operator (str)

  an operator used to compare the field_name with the value. Valid operators are:

  =

  equals to

  !=

  not equals to

  >

  greater than

  >=

  greater than or equal to

  <

  less than

  <=

  less than or equal to

  =?

  unset or equals to (returns true if value is either None or False, otherwise behaves like =)

  =like

  matches field_name against the value pattern. An underscore _ in the pattern stands for (matches) any single character; a percent sign % matches any string of zero or more characters.

  like

  matches field_name against the %value% pattern. Similar to =like but wraps value with ‘%’ before matching

  not like

  doesn’t match against the %value% pattern

  ilike

  case insensitive like

  not ilike

  case insensitive not like

  =ilike

  case insensitive =like

  in

  is equal to any of the items from value, value should be a list of items

  not in

  is unequal to all of the items from value

  child_of

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

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

  parent_of

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

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

• value

  variable type, must be comparable (through operator) to the named field.

Domain criteria can be combined using logical operators in prefix form:

'&'

logical AND, default operation to combine criteria following one another. Arity 2 (uses the next 2 criteria or combinations).

'|'

logical OR, arity 2.

'!'

logical NOT, arity 1.

Note

Mostly to negate combinations of criteria Individual criterion generally have a negative form (e.g. = -> !=, < -> >=) which is simpler than negating the positive.

Example

To search for partners named ABC, from belgium or germany, whose language is not english:

[('name','=','ABC'),
 ('language.code','!=','en_US'),
 '|',('country_id.code','=','be'),
     ('country_id.code','=','de')]

This domain is interpreted as:

    (name is 'ABC')
AND (language is NOT english)
AND (country is Belgium OR Germany)

Unlink

Model.unlink()

Deletes the records of the current set

Raises

• AccessError –

  • if user has no unlink rights on the requested object

  • if user tries to bypass access rules for unlink on the requested object

• UserError – if the record is default property for other records

Record(set) information

Model.ids

Return the list of actual record ids corresponding to self.

flectra.models.env

Returns the environment of the given recordset.

Type

Environment

Model.exists() → records

Returns the subset of records in self that exist, and marks deleted records as such in cache. It can be used as a test on records:

if record.exists():
    ...

By convention, new records are returned as existing.

Model.ensure_one()

Verify that the current recorset holds a single record.

Raises

flectra.exceptions.ValueError – len(self) != 1

Model.name_get() → [id, name, ...]

Returns a textual representation for the records in self. By default this is the value of the display_name field.

Returns

list of pairs (id, text_repr) for each records

Return type

list(tuple)

Model.get_metadata()

Return some metadata about the given records.

Returns

list of ownership dictionaries for each requested record

Return type

list of dictionaries with the following keys:

• id: object id

• create_uid: user who created the record

• create_date: date when the record was created

• write_uid: last user who changed the record

• write_date: date of the last change to the record

• xmlid: XML ID to use to refer to this record (if there is one), in format module.name

• noupdate: A boolean telling if the record will be updated or not

Operations

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

• record in set returns whether record (which must be a 1-element recordset) is present in set. record not in set is the inverse operation

• set1 <= set2 and set1 < set2 return whether set1 is a subset of set2 (resp. strict)

• set1 >= set2 and set1 > set2 return whether set1 is a superset of set2 (resp. strict)

• set1 | set2 returns the union of the two recordsets, a new recordset containing all records present in either source

• set1 & set2 returns the intersection of two recordsets, a new recordset containing only records present in both sources

• set1 - set2 returns a new recordset containing only records of set1 which are not in set2

Recordsets are iterable so the usual Python tools are available for transformation (map(), sorted(), itertools.ifilter, …) however these return either a list or an iterator, removing the ability to call methods on their result, or to use set operations.

Recordsets therefore provide the following operations returning recordsets themselves (when possible):

Filter

Model.filtered(func)

Return the records in self satisfying func.

Parameters

func (callable or str) – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names

Returns

recordset of records satisfying func, may be empty.

# only keep records whose company is the current user's
records.filtered(lambda r: r.company_id == user.company_id)

# only keep records whose partner is a company
records.filtered("partner_id.is_company")

Model.filtered_domain(domain)

Map

Model.mapped(func)

Apply func on all records in self, and return the result as a list or a recordset (if func return recordsets). In the latter case, the order of the returned recordset is arbitrary.

Parameters

func (callable or str) – a function or a dot-separated sequence of field names

Returns

self if func is falsy, result of func applied to all self records.

Return type

list or recordset

# returns a list of summing two fields for each record in the set
records.mapped(lambda r: r.field1 + r.field2)

The provided function can be a string to get field values:

# returns a list of names
records.mapped('name')

# returns a recordset of partners
records.mapped('partner_id')

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

Note

Since V13, multi-relational field access is supported and works like a mapped call:

records.partner_id  # == records.mapped('partner_id')
records.partner_id.bank_ids  # == records.mapped('partner_id.bank_ids')
records.partner_id.mapped('name')  # == records.mapped('partner_id.name')

Sort

Model.sorted(key=None, reverse=False)

Return the recordset self ordered by key.

Parameters

• key (callable or str or None) – either a function of one argument that returns a comparison key for each record, or a field name, or None, in which case records are ordered according the default model’s order

• reverse (bool) – if True, return the result in reverse order

# sort records by name
records.sorted(key=lambda r: r.name)

Inheritance and extension

Flectra provides three different mechanisms to extend models in a modular way:

• creating a new model from an existing one, adding new information to the copy but leaving the original module as-is

• extending models defined in other modules in-place, replacing the previous version

• delegating some of the model’s fields to records it contains

Classical inheritance

When using the _inherit and _name attributes together, Flectra creates a new model using the existing one (provided via _inherit) as a base. The new model gets all the fields, methods and meta-information (defaults & al) from its base.

class Inheritance0(models.Model):
    _name = 'inheritance.0'
    _description = 'Inheritance Zero'

    name = fields.Char()

    def call(self):
        return self.check("model 0")

    def check(self, s):
        return "This is {} record {}".format(s, self.name)

class Inheritance1(models.Model):
    _name = 'inheritance.1'
    _inherit = 'inheritance.0'
    _description = 'Inheritance One'

    def call(self):
        return self.check("model 1")

and using them:

a = env['inheritance.0'].create({'name': 'A'})
b = env['inheritance.1'].create({'name': 'B'})

a.call()
b.call()

will yield:

“This is model 0 record A” “This is model 1 record B”

the second model has inherited from the first model’s check method and its name field, but overridden the call method, as when using standard Python inheritance.

Extension

When using _inherit but leaving out _name, the new model replaces the existing one, essentially extending it in-place. This is useful to add new fields or methods to existing models (created in other modules), or to customize or reconfigure them (e.g. to change their default sort order):

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

name = fields.Char(default="A")

class Extension1(models.Model):
_inherit = 'extension.0'

description = fields.Char(default="Extended")

record = env['extension.0'].create({})
record.read()[0]

will yield:

{'name': "A", 'description': "Extended"}

Note

It will also yield the various automatic fields unless they’ve been disabled

Delegation

The third inheritance mechanism provides more flexibility (it can be altered at runtime) but less power: using the _inherits a model delegates the lookup of any field not found on the current model to “children” models. The delegation is performed via Reference fields automatically set up on the parent model.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

will result in:

13.0
'QWERTY'

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

record.write({'size':2.0})

Warning

when using delegation inheritance, methods are not inherited, only fields

Warning

• _inherits is more or less implemented, avoid it if you can;

• chained _inherits is essentially not implemented, we cannot guarantee anything on the final behavior.

Fields Incremental Definition

A field is defined as class attribute on a model class. If the model is extended, one can also extend the field definition by redefining a field with the same name and same type on the subclass. In that case, the attributes of the field are taken from the parent class and overridden by the ones given in subclasses.

For instance, the second class below only adds a tooltip on the field state:

class First(models.Model):
    _name = 'foo'
    state = fields.Selection([...], required=True)

class Second(models.Model):
    _inherit = 'foo'
    state = fields.Selection(help="Blah blah blah")

Error management

The Flectra Exceptions module defines a few core exception types.

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

Note

If you consider introducing new exceptions, check out the flectra.addons.test_exceptions module.

exception flectra.exceptions.AccessDenied(message='Access Denied')

Login/password error.

Note

No traceback.

Example

When you try to log with a wrong password.

exception flectra.exceptions.AccessError(message)

Access rights error.

Example

When you try to read a record that you are not allowed to.

exception flectra.exceptions.CacheMiss(record, field)

Missing value(s) in cache.

Example

When you try to read a value in a flushed cache.

exception flectra.exceptions.MissingError(message)

Missing record(s).

Example

When you try to write on a deleted record.

exception flectra.exceptions.RedirectWarning(message, action, button_text, additional_context=None)

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

Parameters

• message (str) – exception message and frontend modal content

• action_id (int) – id of the action where to perform the redirection

• button_text (str) – text to put on the button that will trigger the redirection.

• additional_context (dict) – parameter passed to action_id. Can be used to limit a view to active_ids for example.

exception flectra.exceptions.UserError(message)

Generic error managed by the client.

Typically when the user tries to do something that has no sense given the current state of a record. Semantically comparable to the generic 400 HTTP status codes.

exception flectra.exceptions.ValidationError(message)

Violation of python constraints.

Example

When you try to create a new user with a login which already exist in the db.