Episode: 4613
Title: Adding functionality to an Odoo installation
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4613/hpr4613.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:15:10 (official HPR transcript)

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4613, for 2026-04-08
Today's show is entitled, "Adding functionality to an Odoo installation"
The host is Jeroen Baten and the duration is 00:19:50
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "Learn how to download and install extra Odoo apps not yet available on your system"
Hello, this is Jerome Betten again with a podcast and this time it is a podcast number
four in my series on Odo. So in the prior episodes we talked about the functionality
that's available, we talked about how to install it and we talked a little about configuring
Odo from the web from that and if we look at for instance Odo community edition CEE,
there's a lot of functionality there but it's got its shortcomings sure and wouldn't it be nice
if you could expand on that functionality and you guessed it you can. So that's what we're going to
discuss today in detail. So hang on to you see what I tried to explain how this works.
So for one if you if you install Odo you usually get a bunch of software in the directory
slash usual slash ellipse slash python three slash disk dash packages slash Odo and you find
both a number of python files in there but also an add on some directory. Now the python files
make a total of about 18,000 lines of code and that's sort of the core of the application you know
the web's in the build in web server the over mlayer object relational developer layer
et cetera and if you look at the add-ons directory you find a huge number of subdirectories
things like website or sales or I don't know that I'll handle something and they all coincide
with an application in the Odo app store. So it's a one-on-one relation if you have the right subdirector
in add-ons that translates a one-on-one to an application in the Odo build in app store
within the application right okay and can you expand on those add-ons.
Sure you can I'll tell you a bit about sources later but yeah you can add add-ons directory.
Another thing is you could add new add-ons into the add-ons directory where the package is installed
but that makes a huge bunch of mess to to maintain so you don't want to do that what you want to
do is create a separate directory for your own add-ons that you have added to a standard system.
Well if you look at the Linux file hierarchy standard it talks about use a local directory.
So for instance use a local lib by the three Odo add-ons could be a directory for your own add-ons
and some people use opt slash ops slash Odo because it's shorter and maybe they are more lazy.
I don't know but it may come up your mind select one I don't care but you have to take note
of that subdirector in ink so for this spotcast I will use user slash local slash lib slash
python three slash Odo slash add-ons and I need to tell Odo that there is another Odo's add-ons
the answer I need to tell Odo there's another add-ons directory involved so I need to do that by changing
editing the slash eat etc slash Odo slash Odo dot conf file and there is a setting that's called
add-ons underscore path and on underscore path as I have been taught so far first start with the current
add-ons directory so if it's not there he will use the add-ons directory after package
if it is there you have I guess you have to add it I'm not half a century if that's mandatory but
let's not take any risk it doesn't hurt if we do it so the add-ons underscore path setting starts with
slash user slash lib slash python three slash disk dash packages slash your do slash add-ons
then I come up and then our own path so that would be slash user slash local slash lip
slash python three slash Odo slash add-ons I notice this is boring stuff but it's okay hang on
um so you add that setting do the Odo dot conf file you'll restart Odo and you're good to go
um now first let's install an additional app so for this example there are several Odo shops online
hey Odo dot com has his own shop but the OCA the Odo community association and I can't tell you
enough that you should become a member if you use Odo for your business simply because you get
huge value for money anyway um go to their website at apps dot Odo dash community.org slash
shop and you'll find a list of add-ons there and the first one you are going to install for this
example is the one that's called web responsive what does web responsive do it changes the main menu
of the system now it's this little square thing at the top on top left and we're going to change
that into a very nice looking menu um add a simply done by enabling this add-ons so
if you go to the shop you can select the app you can press the download watch that you download
the correct version of the app so it has to be the same version as the Odo version
or you go to get up because it's on getup dot com slash OCA slash web
and with the subdirective web on the score responsive okay download the directory download the
the getery positive i don't care but download you have to do anyway um now we're after downloading
you will place the web on the score responsive directory with all its subdirectries and names
into your own uh Odo uh custom add-ons or Odo slash add-ons directory right so in our case
that will be slash uses slash local slash lip slash python three slash Odo slash add-ons
slash web on the score responsive right that's the subdirectory with a bunch of files
now if you now go to Odo you won't see any difference because yeah the files are there but you
have not notified the application of the existence of these new files to do that you do the following
you go to your menu then to the settings in the settings you go all the way down there's the
enable developer mode enable that no assets needed just enable the developer mode that's it
if you now switch to the apps application so in the menu go to the apps store um you will see
the top menu has changed and there are a few more options and one of them is called update list of apps
always to that effect click on that he will say do you want to scan yes you want to scan
and he will scan the subdirectries and after that the web responsive app it has become part of the
app store in your own Odo instance so you can activate install it so you install it it will take a few
seconds for it to install and voila your main menu has changed dramatically but I think for the better
and well that's basically it you download an app you put it in your add-ons directory you
scan from Odo the list of apps and then you activate install the app and start using it
I once made a calculation of how many apps there are out there in total for Odo and I think it was
past 50,000 so there is a lot to choose from and that's also the challenge um and Odo consultant
is similar to a Linux consultant and a Linux consultant you know he knows his ray around the
command line he knows the commands LSD maker he can compile from source a kernel if if you want to
you know that's Linux stuff and Odo consultant is similar to that but he knows what add-ons exist how to
customize them how to configure them for the the functionality wishes that an organization has
okay I promised you also a couple of other examples so for instance there is the web no bubble
add-on also an OCA app so you can go to get up slash OCA slash web because it's in the
report the web repository and there is a subject directory name web underscore no underscore bubble
and what it does is it disables from you user this router annoying bubble that follows you on the
screen and it's sort of a clippy but you know if you want to disable it this is the way to do it
the other thing is and this is where it becomes pretty interesting I think so at least that's what I think
that is that the community edition has a lot of options where you click on it and it will redirect
your browser to the Odo dot com site and telling you hey buy our stuff and that's funny one time
but it becomes annoying after a couple of times um so there is an add-on from the OCA called
remove Odo dot com bindings nah that's nice um it's part of the oh get up a repository at OCA
called server dash brand with a sub directory name disable underscore Odo underscore online
again download it put it in your add-ons directory we scan the add-ons activated and suddenly
those links don't appear anymore in you know do the other thing is and this is this is pretty major
um it is it's both very important but it also is a huge bunch of functionality so um well the next
example that is um you see Odo community edition has disabled a lot of important account and see
features now you might think they are not there but they are they're just hidden and the
reason for that is that Odo enterprise edition is built on top of the community edition which means that
the community edition is sort of an uh assistant with an account that's he kernel as you might say uh
embed it in it and they've just hidden those features because well why would you otherwise buy
not by uh enterprise edition because you you've got pretty much what you need at a basic level
and the funny thing is there is an app again from the OCA remember what I said about adding value
for the money um and it's uh it's uh it's a kid of dot com slash OCA slash account dash financial dash
tools and there is a separate called account underscore usability download that add-on install it
rescan and enable and suddenly you can do account to see again yeah you can see the invoices you
send and uh well isn't that nice um well there is a lot more that you need to install to become a full
fleshed company and it's not that I don't want to tell you but the thing is that from here on
every company has different these functionality desires functionality wishes uh for one because they're
in different countries so tax laws are different um maybe um yeah they use different banks and
you could use um uh a software as a service that connects Odo to your bank account to download
transactions automatically periodically um or maybe you want to download a transaction file and
import it but then again you have several formats um if you like to play around with those they're
all in the OCA repository because they've got a lot of add-ons there um and if you become a member
they will even explain a lot of this stuff uh in in the webinars that they have recorded um still
they don't become country specific um I have configured an installed Odo for the netizens
and for France so those are the countries that I know uh how to configure and install add-ons for
and well since I'm uh I've got my own uh small company I'm happy and glad to help just give me a um
beat me up ping me whatever um email in the show notes um um and to finish this I would like
to well there are so many apps that I could talk about that are available but that's one that
I think everybody in IT uh can relate to and that's a health desk system and the thing is
there is no health desk app in the community edition there is however a health desk app in the
enterprise edition the paid version but there's not in the community edition and well you guessed it
the OCA has also made a health desk app well several apps um uh to um to add health desk functionality
and uh that's called health desk desk management so if you go to the OCA you go to the shop there
so that's uh apps dot Odo desk community door lock slash shop and you search for health desk you
get a useless list of add-ons one of them is called health desk management and that's the base
module that you need to start adding health desk functionality to your own instances that you can
play around with um speaking of playing around you remember back in one of the earlier episodes
that we talked about the database manager use that thing um separate your production database from one
that you use for trying things out um because in the production database that's high value data
the testing database is a low value data and you don't want to mix those two um so create a new
database if you like install all the apps that you have in your production database to to what
you don't have to install you can even double-cate the database that's easy um and then uh play around
with that database and add apps into that database to um to learn if that's functionality that you
need or want um if you need extra guidance and tips just uh ping me like I said email in the show notes
and well I'm I'm proud to find online um have been for years so um well now that's basically
the end of the series on Odo at this time I don't know of any more subjects that I could discuss
if you do however just put a comment in this the show notes for this show you know um and I
released it and if it makes sense I'll record another episode and I'll try to explain uh how I
how your question can be answered if I know the answer if I don't I'm not a bullshit artist I won't tell you
um so I hope you found this helpful I hope you learned a little bit and I hope you have
an awesome rest of your day and till we meet again I'm signing off this episode's
too wrong baton talking about Odo adding addons bye bye
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