Chapter 5: Security - A Brief Introduction¶
In the previous chapter, we created our first table intended to store business data. In a business application such as Odoo, one of the first questions to consider is who1 can access the data. Odoo provides a security mechanism to allow access to the data for specific groups of users.
The topic of security is covered in more detail in Restrict access to data. This chapter aims to cover the minimum required for our new module.
Data Files (CSV)¶
Odoo is a highly data driven system. Although behavior is customized using Python code, part of a
module’s value is in the data it sets up when loaded. One way to load data is through a CSV
file. One example is the
list of country states
which is loaded at installation of the base
module.
"id","country_id:id","name","code"
state_us_1,us,"Alabama","AL"
state_us_2,us,"Alaska","AK"
state_us_3,us,"Arizona","AZ"
state_us_4,us,"Arkansas","AR"
...
id
is an external identifier. It can be used to refer to the record (without knowing its in-database identifier).country_id:id
refers to the country by using its external identifier.name
is the name of the state.code
is the code of the state.
These three fields are
defined
in the res.country.state
model.
By convention, a file importing data is located in the data
folder of a module. When the data
is related to security, it is located in the security
folder. When the data is related to
views and actions (we will cover this later), it is located in the views
folder.
Additionally, all of these files must be declared in the data
list within the __manifest__.py
file. Our example file is defined
in the manifest of the base module.
Also note that the content of the data files is only loaded when a module is installed or updated.
Warning
The data files are sequentially loaded following their order in the __manifest__.py
file.
This means that if data A
refers to data B
, you must make sure that B
is loaded before A
.
In the case of the country states, you will note that the list of countries is loaded before the list of country states. This is because the states refer to the countries.
Why is all this important for security? Because all the security configuration of a model is loaded through data files, as we’ll see in the next section.
Access Rights¶
Reference: the documentation related to this topic can be found in Access Rights.
Note
Goal: at the end of this section, the following warning should not appear anymore:
WARNING rd-demo odoo.modules.loading: The model estate.property has no access rules...
When no access rights are defined on a model, Odoo determines that no users can access the data. It is even notified in the log:
WARNING rd-demo odoo.modules.loading: The model estate.property has no access rules, consider adding one. E.g. access_estate_property,access_estate_property,model_estate_property,base.group_user,1,0,0,0
Access rights are defined as records of the model ir.model.access
. Each
access right is associated with a model, a group (or no group for global
access) and a set of permissions: create, read, write and unlink2. Such access
rights are usually defined in a CSV file named
ir.model.access.csv
.
Here is an example for our previous test_model
:
id,name,model_id/id,group_id/id,perm_read,perm_write,perm_create,perm_unlink
access_test_model,access_test_model,model_test_model,base.group_user,1,0,0,0
id
is an external identifier.name
is the name of their.model.access
.model_id/id
refers to the model which the access right applies to. The standard way to refer to the model ismodel_<model_name>
, where<model_name>
is the_name
of the model with the.
replaced by_
. Seems cumbersome? Indeed it is…group_id/id
refers to the group which the access right applies to.perm_read,perm_write,perm_create,perm_unlink
: read, write, create and unlink permissions
Exercise
Add access rights.
Create the ir.model.access.csv
file in the appropriate folder and define it in the
__manifest__.py
file.
Give the read, write, create and unlink permissions to the group base.group_user
.
Tip: the warning message in the log gives you most of the solution ;-)
Restart the server and the warning message should have disappeared!
It’s now time to finally interact with the UI!