Customizing Reports

Odoo uses HTML and CSS technologies to create reports. HTML is a markup language that uses tags, also called elements. It is the core of any webpage because it provides its basic structure. CSS interacts with HTML elements to add style to the page, establishing how the HTML is shown to the user. Odoo’s reports also use Bootstrap’s grid layout, which is the containers, rows, and columns to align content, and support Odoo’s website themes.
When creating a new report, choose the purpose of it and if you would like the report to include header and footer (company logo, name, address, phone, email address, etc.).
View of the types of new reports in Odoo Studio

Under the tab Add, you find the fields to be dragged and dropped to the view. Fields, Data tables, Subtotal & Total, and Address Book are dynamic elements (meaning that they need a one2many or a many2many related object). Text, Title Block, Image, and Text in Cell are static elements.

View of a report and the tab add in Odoo Studio

Once the element is added to the view, select it to see its Options. The first section shows the hierarchy of the selected object and its properties, allowing you to individually edit them. Fields with related objects have their directives shown on Field Expression.

View of a report and the tab options in Odoo Studio
Under Visible if, define the rule(s) to set visibility conditions to fields.
Example: if choosing to display a product image, you could set a visibility rule to only display the ones that are set in the product form, avoiding having a plain icon when they are not set.
Visible for is used to set which groups can have access to specific elements in the report. Limit visibility to groups, under Report, sets the visibility of the report to specifics groups, meaning that users belonging to other groups do not see the same final document.
View of a report’s settings emphasizing the field limit visibility to groups in Odoo Studio

Under the Report tab, name your report, choose the paper format, and if the report should be added to the Print menu list on its respective document form.

View of an invoice form emphasizing the menu print for Odoo Studio

If activating the developer mode, additional fields such as Class under Options, and Reload from attachment under Report, become visible.

  • Class: add custom CSS classes to the selected element (e.g. Bootstrap classes such as text-danger).

  • Reload from attachment: saves the report as an attachment of the document when printed. When the report is reprinted, it re-downloads that attachment instead of re-printing it. This means that if the underlying record (e.g. Invoice) changes when compared to the first impression, the report does not reflect the changes because they were done after the attachment was created. This is typically useful for reports linked to documents that should not change, such as Invoices.

Tip

Actions in Odoo Studio can be undone until you Close the toolbox. Once you have closed Studio, changes can not be undone anymore.

View of a report being built and emphasizing the undo and redo buttons in Odoo Studio