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Ahamed

I am building a mobile app and using Odoo as the backend. I want to integrate Odoo’s built-in Discuss module so that users can chat with each other inside the app — similar to how messaging works in the Odoo web Discuss module.

Example use case:

User A sends a message to User B → It should be stored and visible in their chat history in the mobile app (just like mail.message or mail.channel works in Odoo Discuss).



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DataInteger Consultancy Services LLP
Best Answer
Technical Approach


Step 1: Create or Fetch a 1-to-1 Mail Channel

Odoo uses mail.channel for conversations. For private messages between two users, you can reuse an existing private channel or create a new one .

# Create or fetch private chat channel between two users
channel = self.env['mail.channel'].channel_get([user_a_id, user_b_id])
channel_id = channel['id']

Or via JSON-RPC in your mobile app:

{
  "model": "mail.channel",
  "method": "channel_get",
  "args": [[user_a_id, user_b_id]]
}

This will return a dictionary with the channel ID for the private chat.


Step 2: Send a Message to the Channel

Once you have the channel_id, post a message using channel_message_post.

self.env['mail.channel'].browse(channel_id).message_post(
    body="Hello, User B!",
    message_type="comment",
    subtype_xmlid="mail.mt_comment"
)

Or via JSON-RPC:

{
  "model": "mail.channel",
  "method": "message_post",
  "args": [],
  "kwargs": {
    "body": "Hello, User B!",
    "message_type": "comment",
    "subtype_xmlid": "mail.mt_comment"
  },
  "context": {
    "default_model": "mail.channel",
    "default_res_id": channel_id
  }
}
Step 3: Fetch Messages from the Channel

Use mail.message to fetch messages linked to the channel:

messages = self.env['mail.message'].search_read([
    ('model', '=', 'mail.channel'),
    ('res_id', '=', channel_id)
], ['body', 'date', 'author_id'])

This will give the chat history for that private conversation.


Step 4: Push Notifications (Optional)

You can use Odoo's built-in bus for real-time communication ( bus.Bus ). But for mobile apps, it's better to implement a polling mechanism or integrate Firebase / OneSignal for push notifications when a new message is posted.

Required Odoo Modules

Make sure the following are installed:

  • mail (core messaging)
  • bus (for real-time notifications)
  • im_livechat (if live chat is also needed, optional)
Permissions & Access

Ensure users in your app are mapped to Odoo users with:

  • Access to mail.channel, mail.message
  • Proper record rules (restricting access to only their own cats)
  • If you want guests to chat, consider creating special partner records or portal users.
On the Mobile App Side

Build API calls or JSON-RPC requests to:

  • mail.channel.channel_get([user_a_id, user_b_id])
  • mail.channel.message_post(...)
  • mail.message.search_read(...)

You can also extend Odoo Controllers to expose REST APIs if needed ( /mail/chat/send , /mail/chat/history , etc.).


Compatible with Odoo Licensing
  • Odoo Enterprise or Community — both support mail and mail.channel.
  • You do not need to modify the core Discuss module . You're using exposed models/controllers the way Odoo does.
  • Your mobile app is acting as a frontend, and all business logic remains in Odoo = legal and safe.

Example: Flow API
  1. Login
  2. Get channel for user IDs
  3. Send message to channel
  4. Read messages for channel
  5. (Optional) Push notification via FCM


Thanks & Regards,

Email: contact@datainteger.com

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