Connector Concepts

The framework to develop connectors is decoupled in small pieces of codes interacting together. Each of them can be used or not in an implementation.

An example of implementation is the Odoo Magento Connector.

This document describes them from a high-level point of view and gives pointers to more concrete ‘how-to’ or small tutorials.

Events

Reference: Events

Events are hooks in Odoo on which we can plug some actions. They are based on an Observer pattern.

The same event can be shared across several connectors, easing their implementation. For instance, the module connector_ecommerce which extends the framework with common e-commerce capabilities, adds its own events common to e-commerce.

A connectors developer is mostly interested by:

  • adding and listening to events (see Events)

Jobs Queue

Reference: Queue

This feature is part of a standalone addon, but is a prerequisite for the connector framework.

The module is queue_job in https://github.com/OCA/queue.

A connectors developer is mostly interested by:

  • Delay a job (see the decorator job())

Backend

Reference: Backend Model

The Backend Model is what represents the external service / system we synchronize with. The name on the backend indicates what is the collection the Components will be registered into. Put another way: every backend has its own collection of Components.

It must use an _inherit on connector.backend.

connector.backend inherits odoo.addons.component.models.collection.Collection which has a odoo.addons.component.models.collection.Collection.work_on() that will be used as entrypoint for the component system. This method returns a WorkContext

WorkContext

Reference: WorkContext

A WorkContext is the work environment or context that will be passed transversally through all the components. This is also the entrypoint to the component system.

A connectors developer is mostly interested by:

Component

Reference: Components

Component are pluggable classes used for the synchronizations with the external systems (or anything!)

The Components system has been extracted in a standalone addon (component), which means it can really be used in a totally different way.

The connector defines some base components, which you can find below. Note that you can and are encouraged to define your own Components as well.

Mappings

The base class is connector.components.mapper.Mapper.

In your components, you probably want to inherit from:

  • _inherit = 'base.import.mapper'
  • _inherit = 'base.export.mapper'

And the usages for the lookups are:

  • import.mapper
  • export.mapper

A mapping translates an external record to an Odoo record and conversely.

It supports:

direct mappings
Fields a is written in field b.
method mappings
A method is used to convert one or many fields to one or many fields, with transformation. It can be filtered, for example only applied when the record is created or when the source fields are modified.
submapping
a sub-record (lines of a sale order) is converted using another Mapper

See the documentation of the class for more details.

Synchronizers

The base class is connector.components.synchronizer.Synchronizer.

In your components, you probably want to inherit from:

  • _inherit = 'base.importer'
  • _inherit = 'base.exporter'

And the usages for the lookups are:

  • importer
  • exporter

However, in your implementation, it is advised to use more refined usages such as:

  • record.importer
  • record.exporter
  • batch.importer
  • batch.exporter

A synchronizer orchestrates a synchronization with a backend. It can be a record’s import or export, a deletion of something, or anything else. For instance, it will use the mappings to convert the data between both systems, the backend adapters to read or write data on the backend and the binders to create the link between them.

Backend Adapters

The base class is connector.components.backend_adapter.BackendAdapter.

In your components, you probably want to inherit from:

  • _inherit = 'base.backend.adapter'
  • _inherit = 'base.backend.adapter.crud'

And the usages for the lookups are:

  • backend.adapter

An external adapter has a common interface to speak with the backend. It translates the basic orders (search, read, write) to the protocol used by the backend.

Binders

The base class is connector.components.binder.Binder.

In your components, you probably want to inherit from:

  • _inherit = 'base.binder'

And the usages for the lookups are:

  • binder

Binders are components that know how to find the external ID for an Odoo ID, how to find the Odoo ID for an external ID and how to create the binding between them. A default implementation is available and can be inherited if needed.

Listeners

The base class is connector.components.listener.ConnectorListener.

In your components, you probably want to inherit from:

  • _inherit = 'base.connector.listener'

This is where you will register your event listeners. See addons.component_event.components.event.

Bindings

Reference: Binding Model

A binding represents the link of a record between Odoo and a backend.

The proposed implementation for the connectors widely use the _inherits capabilities.

Say we import a customer from Magento.

We create a magento.res.partner model, which _inherits res.partner.

This model, called a binding model, knows the ID of the partner in Odoo, the ID in Magento and the relation to the backend model.

It also stores all the necessary metadata related to this customer coming from Magento.

Checkpoint

A checkpoint is a record in the model connector.checkpoint linked to a model and a record, the connectors can create a new one when the user needs to review imported documents.