Odoo Mercado Libre Integration

To save time and avoid duplicate data entry between Odoo and MercadoLibre, and to keep product listings consistent and up to date across both systems. Without it, a product would have to be typed into MercadoLibre's own listing form after already being created in Odoo, and every later change, a price update, a stock count, a new photo, would have to be repeated by hand on the marketplace to keep the listing matching the record in Odoo. Publishing straight from Odoo removes that second entry and the drift that comes with it, since Odoo stays the place the product is actually maintained and MercadoLibre simply reflects it.

The integration needs a MercadoLibre seller account and an application registered on MercadoLibre's developer site, which is where the App ID (Client ID) and the Client Secret used by the connection are issued, along with a redirect URI the connector answers to when MercadoLibre sends a seller back after authorizing it. It also needs the product data MercadoLibre requires before it will accept a listing: a name, a sale price, a stock quantity, at least one image reachable over a public URL, and a MercadoLibre category with whatever attributes that category makes mandatory, since MercadoLibre will not publish an item that is missing a required attribute for the category it is filed under.

An application is registered on MercadoLibre's developer site, which issues the App ID and the Client Secret and is where the redirect URI is declared. Because MercadoLibre authenticates over OAuth2, the connection is not usable from those credentials alone: a seller has to authorize the application once, signing in to MercadoLibre and approving it, after which MercadoLibre redirects back with a code the connector exchanges for an access token and a refresh token. The access token is what is presented on every call to MercadoLibre's API and expires after a few hours, while the refresh token is what lets the connector obtain a new access token afterwards without asking the seller to authorize it all over again.

In Odoo, an instance record holds the App ID, the Client Secret and the marketplace site the seller account belongs to, since MercadoLibre runs as a separate site per country rather than one global marketplace. Once the seller has completed the authorization step, the access and refresh tokens obtained from it are stored on that same record, and the connector renews the access token on its own using the refresh token as it approaches expiry, so publishing and updating listings keeps working without the seller having to reauthorize on a schedule.

A product in Odoo is mapped to a MercadoLibre category and has that category's required attributes filled in before it can be published, since MercadoLibre validates an item against its category's rules and rejects one that is missing something the category demands. Publishing takes the product's name, price, stock quantity and images and sends them to MercadoLibre to create the listing; the item id MercadoLibre returns is stored on the Odoo product, and that stored id is what lets the same action be used again later to update the existing listing instead of creating a second one for the same product.

Because the MercadoLibre item id is kept on the Odoo product once it is first published, a later change in Odoo, a new price, a stock count after a delivery, an added photo, is pushed to MercadoLibre through the same connection rather than requiring the listing to be edited separately on the marketplace. A product taken off sale or run out of stock in Odoo is likewise reflected on the MercadoLibre side rather than left showing availability that no longer exists, keeping the listing a reflection of Odoo instead of a second copy that has to be maintained on its own.