Open object framework (Fabien Pinckaers)¶

Tags: europython2009, europython

The open object library is the foundation for open erp. Openobject uses a model/view/controller structure with either a rich client (gtk or kde) and/or a web client.

In the demo, he developed the model with a Dia UML diagram. (Note to myself: dia looks much improved from the last time I looked at it). There is a Dia plugin so you can save it as openobject input files.

There are lots of models you can download as ready-made add-ons. At the moment there are some 500, varying from contact information to manufacturing systems. An add-on contains the model in a python file, a metadata file for registering with openobject and for instance definitions for menu items.

When you don’t define custom views, you get an auto-generated one (which doesn’t look too pretty of course). He showed the interface in both the GTK application as in the web interface, which worked well. For adapting the auto-generated view, there is a “view editor”, again both in gtk and a web interface. Simple fields, relation fields, a calender widget: it is all there.

There’s a reporting tool that creates openoffice documents. And they have an openoffice plugin that exports openoffice documents as “RML” documents, which is used by reportlab as input to generate PDF files. They use openoffice as a starting point as you can prepare templates as regular documents and fill them with data from openobject later. Here also a plugin that they made helps to manage the template (“repeat this table line for every exam result”, “one document per teacher”, etc.).

You can add workflow to your application. You can edit it like a UML state diagram in the GTK or web interface. Looked smooth. He demoed that the creation of a new course resulted in the printing of a PDF. If you want to link to existing documents in a PDF, you can get an automatic list generated if you tell openobject where to find the documents (via ftp for instance).

There’s a load of functionality in here. A good framework with a lot of add-ons.