With the help of the addons_path parameter, you can load your own add-on modules into Odoo. When Odoo initializes a new database, it will search for add-on modules within directories that have been provided in the addons_path configuration parameter. Odoo will search in these directories for the potential add-on module.

Directories listed in addons_path are expected to contain subdirectories, each of which is an add-on module. Following initialization of the database, you will be able to install modules that are given in these directories.

Getting ready

This recipe assumes that you have an instance ready with a configuration file generated, as described in the Storing the instance configuration in a file recipe in Chapter 1, Installing the Odoo Development Environment. Note that the source code of Odoo is available in ~/odoo-dev/odoo, and the configuration file in ~/odoo-dev/myodoo.cfg.

How to do it…

To add the ~/odoo-dev/local-addons...

We recommend that your development and production environments all use a similar directory layout. This standardization will prove helpful when you have to perform maintenance operations, and it will also ease your day-to-day work.

This recipe creates a directory structure that groups files with similar life cycles or similar purposes in standardized subdirectories.

Note

This recipe is only useful if you want to manage similar folder structure development and production environments. If you do not want this, you can skip this recipe.

Also, it is not compulsory to observe the same folder structure as in this recipe. Feel free to alter this structure to suit your needs.

To create the proposed instance layout, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Create one directory per instance:

   $ mkdir ~/odoo-dev/projectname
   $ cd ~/odoo-dev/projectname

2. Create a Python virtualenv object in a subdirectory called env/:

   $ python3 -m venv env

3. Create some subdirectories, as follows:

   $ mkdir src local bin filestore logs

   The functions of the subdirectories are as follows:

   • src/: This contains the clone of Odoo itself, as well as the various third-party add-on projects (we have added Odoo source code to the next step in this recipe).
   • local/: This is used to save your instance-specific add-ons.
   • bin/: This includes various helper executable shell scripts.
   • filestore/: This is used as a file store.
   • logs/ (optional): This is used to store the server log files.
4. Clone Odoo and install the requirements (refer to Chapter 1, Installing the Odoo Development Environment, for details on this):

   $ git clone -b 14.0 --single-branch --depth 1 https://github...

We generate a clean directory structure with clearly labeled directories and dedicated roles. We are using different directories to store the following:

• The code maintained by other people (in src/)
• The local-specific code
• filestore of the instance

By having one virtualenv environment per project, we are sure that the project's dependencies will not interfere with the dependencies of other projects that may be running a different version of Odoo or will use different third-party add-on modules, which require different versions of Python dependencies. This comes at the cost of a little disk space.

In a similar way, by using separate clones of Odoo and third-party add-on modules for our different projects, we are able to let each of these evolve independently and only install updates on the instances that need them, hence reducing the risk of introducing regressions.

The bin/odoo script allows us to run the server without having...

The core functionality of Odoo comes from its add-on modules. You have a wealth of add-ons available as part of Odoo itself, as well as add-on modules that you can download from the app store or that have been written by yourself.

In this recipe, we will demonstrate how to install and upgrade add-on modules through the web interface and from the command line.

The main benefits of using the command line for these operations include being able to act on more than one add-on at a time and having a clear view of the server logs as the installation or update progresses, which is very useful when in development mode or when scripting the installation of an instance.

Getting ready

Make sure that you have a running Odoo instance with its database initialized and the add-ons path properly set. In this recipe, we will install/upgrade a few add-on modules.

How to do it…

There are two possible methods to install or update add...

GitHub is a great source of third-party add-ons. A lot of Odoo partners use GitHub to share the add-ons they maintain internally, and the Odoo Community Association (OCA) collectively maintains several hundred add-ons on GitHub. Before you start writing your own add-on, ensure that you check that nothing already exists that you can use as is or as a starting point.

This recipe will show you how to clone the partner-contact project of the OCA from GitHub and make the add-on modules it contains available in your instance.

Getting ready

Suppose you want to add new fields to the customers (partner) form. By default, the Odoo customers model doesn't have a gender field. If you want to add a gender field, you need to create a new module. Fortunately, someone on a mailing list tells you about the partner_contact_gender add-on module, which is maintained by the OCA as part of the partner-contact project.

The paths that are used in this...

Most add-ons that are available on GitHub are subject to change and do not follow the rules that Odoo enforces for its stable release. They may receive bug fixes or enhancements, including issues or feature requests that you have submitted, and these changes may introduce database schema changes or updates in the data files and views. This recipe explains how to install the updated versions.

Getting ready

Suppose you reported an issue with partner_contact_gender and received a notification that the issue was solved in the last revision of the 14.0 branch of the partner-contact project. In this case, you will want to update your instance with this latest version.

How to do it…

To apply a source modification to your add-on from GitHub, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Stop the instance using that add-on.
2. Make a backup if it is a production instance (refer to the Manage Odoo server databases recipe in Chapter 1, Installing...

In the GitHub world, a Pull Request (PR) is a request that's made by a developer so that the maintainers of a project can include some new developments. Such a PR may contain a bug fix or a new feature. These requests are reviewed and tested before being pulled into the main branch.

This recipe explains how to apply a PR to your Odoo project in order to test an improvement or a bug fix.

Getting ready

As in the previous recipe, suppose you reported an issue with partner_address_street3 and received a notification that the issue was solved in a PR, which hasn't been merged in the 14.0 branch of the project. The developer asks you to validate the fix in PR #123. You need to update a test instance with this branch.

You should not try out such branches directly on a production database, so first create a test environment with a copy of the production database (refer to Chapter 1, Installing the Odoo Development Environment...