Development Book V17: Buttons

Odoo offers different types of buttons. Form buttons are created on form views and trigger specific actions or items when clicked. Another type is the smart button, which is employed when you want to incorporate pertinent records from another model into your own.

Form Buttons

To create a form button in Odoo, start by defining the view. Within the view, you can generate the buttons using the <button> tag.

For example:

<record id="hospital_patient_view_form" model="ir.ui.view">
   <field name="name">hospital.patient.view.form</field>
   <field name="model">hospital.patient</field>
   <field name="arch" type="xml">
       <form string="menu">
           <header>
               <button name="action_confirm" string="Confirm"
                       class="oe_highlight" type="object"/>
               <field name="state" widget="statusbar"/>
           </header>
           <sheet>
               <group>
                   <group>
                       <field name="name"/>
                       <field name="age"/>
                   </group>
                   <group>
                       <field name="email"/>
                       <field name="phone"/>
                   </group>
               </group>
           </sheet>
       </form>
   </field>
</record>

Here, a form view is initially defined. Within the form view, a button object type named action_confirm is established. The corresponding function for the model can be defined in the Python file under the name action_confirm.

def action_confirm(self):
      self.write({'state': 'confirmed'})

It's crucial to define this function; otherwise, an error would be encountered. The preview of the button is shown below.

In Odoo, there are also action-type buttons available. An action button indicates that clicking the button will trigger a specific action. The action button is particularly useful when you want to launch a wizard in response to a button click.

For example:

<record id="hospital_patient_view_form" model="ir.ui.view">
   <field name="name">hospital.patient.view.form</field>
   <field name="model">hospital.patient</field>
   <field name="arch" type="xml">
       <form string="menu">
           <header>
               <button name="action_confirm" string="Confirm"
                       class="oe_highlight" type="object"/>
               <button name="%(action_add_patient)d" string="Book Appointment" type="action" class="oe_highlight" />
               <field name="state" widget="statusbar"/>
           </header>
           <sheet>
               <group> 
                   <group>
                       <field name="name"/>
                       <field name="age"/>
                   </group>
                   <group>
                       <field name="email"/>
                       <field name="phone"/>
                   </group>
               </group>
           </sheet>
       </form>
   </field>
</record>

The next step involves specifying the action that should be taken when the button is clicked.

<record id="action_add_patient" model="ir.actions.act_window">
   <field name="name">Book Appointment</field>
   <field name="res_model">patient.booking</field>
   <field name="view_mode">form</field>
   <field name="target">new</field>
</record>

The below image shows the updated appearance with the newly configured button and its functionality.

Clicking the button will prompt the display of a wizard, as illustrated below.

Smart Button

Form views in Odoo define smart buttons, and they possess permissions to access all records associated with that particular form view.

For example:

<record id="hospital_patient_view_form" model="ir.ui.view">
   <field name="name">hospital.patient.view.form</field>
   <field name="model">hospital.patient</field>
   <field name="arch" type="xml">
       <form string="menu">
           <header>
               <button name="action_confirm" string="Confirm"
                       class="oe_highlight" type="object"/>
               <button name="%(action_add_patient)d"
                       string="Book Appointment" type="action"
                       class="oe_highlight"/>
               <field name="state" widget="statusbar"/>
           </header>
           <sheet>
               <div class="oe_button_box" name="button_box">
                   <button class="oe_stat_button" type="object"
                           string="Appointments" name="show_appointments"
                           icon="fa-pencil-square-o">
                   </button>
               </div>
               <group>
                   <group>
                       <field name="name"/>
                       <field name="age"/>
                   </group>
                   <group>
                       <field name="email"/>
                       <field name="phone"/>
                   </group>
               </group>
           </sheet>
       </form>
   </field>
</record>

Within the form view, a new smart button has been added. It is essential to define a function with its name since the button is of the object type. The term "icon" is used to refer to the smart button's visual representation.