Boostrapping a connector¶

We’ll see the steps to bootstrap a new connector.

Besides that, you may want to use the existing connectors to have some real implementation examples:

Be aware that the connector API has changed in Odoo 10.0, so the examples might be outdated.

Some boilerplate is necessary, so this document will guide you through some steps. Please also take a look on the Naming conventions.

For the sake of the example, we’ll imagine we have to synchronize Odoo with a coffee machine.

Odoo Manifest¶

As we want to synchronize Odoo with a coffee machine, we’ll name our connector connector_coffee.

First, we need to create the Odoo addons itself, editing the connector_coffee/__manifest__.py manifest.

 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 {'name': 'Coffee Connector',
  'version': '1.0.0',
  'category': 'Connector',
  'depends': ['connector',
              ],
  'author': 'Myself',
  'license': 'LGPL-3',
  'description': """
 Coffee Connector
 ================

 Connect Odoo to my coffee machine.

 Features:

 * Poor a coffee when Odoo is busy for too long
 """,
  'data': [],
  'installable': True,
 }

Nothing special but 2 things to note:

It depends from connector. connector itself depends from queue_job, component and component_event. queue_job is in the OCA/queue repository.
The module category should be Connector.

Of course, we also need to create the __init__.py file where we will put the imports of our python modules.

Backend Model¶

Reference: Backend Model

We need to create a Backend representing the external service. Every record we synchronize will be linked with a record of coffee.backend. This backend is our collection of Components.

The coffee.backend model is an _inherit of connector.backend. In connector_coffee/models/coffee_binding.py:

from odoo import api, fields, models


class CoffeeBackend(models.Model):
    _name = 'coffee.backend'
    _description = 'Coffee Backend'
    _inherit = 'connector.backend'

    location = fields.Char(string='Location')
    username = fields.Char(string='Username')
    password = fields.Char(string='Password')

Notes:

We can other fields for the configuration of the connection or the synchronizations.

Abstract Binding¶

Reference: Binding Model

In order to share common features between all the bindings (see Bindings), create an abstract binding model.

It can be as follows (in connector_coffee/models/coffee_binding.py):

from odoo import models, fields


class CoffeeBinding(models.AbstractModel):
    _name = 'coffee.binding'
    _inherit = 'external.binding'
    _description = 'Coffee Binding (abstract)'

    # odoo_id = odoo-side id must be declared in concrete model
    backend_id = fields.Many2one(
        comodel_name='coffee.backend',
        string='Coffee Backend',
        required=True,
        ondelete='restrict',
    )
    coffee_id = fields.Integer(string='ID in the Coffee Machine',
                               index=True)

Notes:

This model inherit from external.binding
Any number of fields or methods can be added

Components¶

Reference: Components

We’ll probably need to create synchronizers, mappers, backend adapters, binders and maybe our own kind of components.

Their implementation can vary from a project to another. Have a look on the Odoo Magento Connector and Odoo Prestashop Connector projects.