its from odoo-6 docs...:

Menu and Actions
Menus
Here’s the template of a menu item :
<menuitem id="menuitem_id"
name="Position/Of/The/Menu/Item/In/The/Tree"
action="action_id"
icon="NAME_FROM_LIST"
groups="groupname"
sequence="<integer>"/>
Where
• id specifies the identifier of the menu item in the menu items table. This identifier must be unique. Mandatory
field.
• name defines the position of the menu item in the menu hierarchy. Elements are separated by slashes (“/”). A
menu item name with no slash in its text is a top level menu. Mandatory field.
• action specifies the identifier of the action that must have been defined in the action table
(ir.actions.act_window). Note that this field is not mandatory : you can define menu elements without associating
actions to them. This is useful when defining custom icons for menu elements that will act as folders (for
example this is how custom icons for “Projects”, “Human Resources” in Open ERP are defined).
• icon specifies which icon will be displayed for the menu item using the menu item. The
default icon is STOCK_OPEN.
The available icons are : STOCK_ABOUT, STOCK_ADD, STOCK_APPLY, STOCK_BOLD, STOCK_CANCEL,
STOCK_CDROM, STOCK_CLEAR, STOCK_CLOSE, STOCK_COLOR_PICKER, STOCK_CONNECT,
STOCK_CONVERT, STOCK_COPY, STOCK_CUT, STOCK_DELETE, STOCK_DIALOG_AUTHENTICATION,
STOCK_DIALOG_ERROR, STOCK_DIALOG_INFO, STOCK_DIALOG_QUESTION,
STOCK_DIALOG_WARNING, STOCK_DIRECTORY, STOCK_DISCONNECT, STOCK_DND,
STOCK_DND_MULTIPLE, STOCK_EDIT, STOCK_EXECUTE, STOCK_FILE, STOCK_FIND,
STOCK_FIND_AND_REPLACE, STOCK_FLOPPY, STOCK_GOTO_BOTTOM, STOCK_GOTO_FIRST,
60STOCK_GOTO_LAST, STOCK_GOTO_TOP, STOCK_GO_BACK, STOCK_GO_DOWN, STOCK_GO_FORWARD,
STOCK_GO_UP, STOCK_HARDDISK, STOCK_HELP, STOCK_HOME, STOCK_INDENT, STOCK_INDEX,
STOCK_ITALIC, STOCK_JUMP_TO, STOCK_JUSTIFY_CENTER, STOCK_JUSTIFY_FILL,
STOCK_JUSTIFY_LEFT, STOCK_JUSTIFY_RIGHT, STOCK_MEDIA_FORWARD, STOCK_MEDIA_NEXT,
STOCK_MEDIA_PAUSE, STOCK_MEDIA_PLAY, STOCK_MEDIA_PREVIOUS, STOCK_MEDIA_RECORD,
STOCK_MEDIA_REWIND, STOCK_MEDIA_STOP, STOCK_MISSING_IMAGE, STOCK_NETWORK,
STOCK_NEW, STOCK_NO, STOCK_OK, STOCK_OPEN, STOCK_PASTE, STOCK_PREFERENCES,
STOCK_PRINT, STOCK_PRINT_PREVIEW, STOCK_PROPERTIES, STOCK_QUIT,STOCK_REDO,
STOCK_REFRESH, STOCK_REMOVE, STOCK_REVERT_TO_SAVED, STOCK_SAVE, STOCK_SAVE_AS,
STOCK_SELECT_COLOR, STOCK_SELECT_FONT, STOCK_SORT_ASCENDING, STOCK_SORT_DESCENDING,
STOCK_SPELL_CHECK, STOCK_STOP, STOCK_STRIKETHROUGH, STOCK_UNDELETE,
STOCK_UNDERLINE, STOCK_UNDO, STOCK_UNINDENT, STOCK_YES, STOCK_ZOOM_100,
STOCK_ZOOM_FIT, STOCK_ZOOM_IN, STOCK_ZOOM_OUT, terp-account, terp-crm, terp-mrp, terp-product, terp-
purchase, terp-sale, terp-tools, terp-administration, terp-hr, terp-partner, terp-project, terp-report, terp-stock
• groups specifies which group of user can see the menu item (example : groups=”admin”). See section ”
Management of Access Rights” for more information. Multiple groups should be separated by a ‘,’ (example:
groups=”admin,user”)
• sequence is an integer that is used to sort the menu item in the menu. The higher the sequence number, the
downer the menu item. This argument is not mandatory: if sequence is not specified, the menu item gets a default
sequence number of 10. Menu items with the same sequence numbers are sorted by order of creation (_order =
“sequence,id“).
Example
In server/bin/addons/sale/sale_view.xml, we have, for example
<menuitem name="Sales Management/Sales Order/Sales Order in Progress" id="menu_action_order_tree4"
action="action_order_tree4"/>
To change the icon of menu item :
* Highlight the menu which icon you want to change
* Select the "Switch to list/form" option from the "Form" menu. This will take you to the Munu
editor.
* From here you can change icon of your selected menu.
Actions
Introduction
The actions define the behavior of the system in response to the actions of the users ; login of a new user, double-click on an invoice,
click on the action button, ...
There are different types of simple actions:
• Window: Opening of a new window
• Report: The printing of a report
o Custom Report: The personalized reports o RML Report: The XSL:RML reports
• Wizard: The beginning of a Wizard
• Execute: The execution of a method on the server side
• Group: Gather some actions in one group
The actions are used for the following events;
User connection,
The user double-clicks on the menu,
• The user clicks on the icon ‘print’ or ‘action’.
Example of events
In Open ERP, all the actions are described and not configured. Two examples:
Opening of a window when double-clicking in the menu
61•
User connection
Opening of the menu
When the user open the option of the menu “Operations > Partners > Partners Contact”, the next steps are done to give the user
information on the action to undertake.
1. Search the action in the IR.
2. Execution of the action
If the action is the type Opening the Window; it indicates to the user that a new window must be opened for a selected
object and it gives you the view (form or list) and the filed to use (only the pro-forma invoice).
The user asks the object and receives information necessary to trace a form; the fields description and the XML view.
User connection
When a new user is connected to the server, the client must search the action to use for the first screen of this user. Generally, this action
is: open the menu in the ‘Operations’ section.
The steps are:
Reading of a user file to obtain ACTION_ID
1. Reading of the action and execution of this one
The fields
Action Name
The action name
Action Type
Always ‘ir.actions.act_window’
View Ref
The view used for showing the object
Model
The model of the object to post
Type of View
The type of view (Tree/Form)
Domain Value
The domain that decreases the visible data with this view
The view
The view describes how the edition form or the data tree/list appear on screen. The views can be of ‘Form’ or ‘Tree’ type, according to
whether they represent a form for the edition or a list/tree for global data viewing.
A form can be called by an action opening in ‘Tree’ mode. The form view is generally opened from the list mode (like if the user pushes
on ‘switch view’)
The domain
This parameter allows you to regulate which resources are visible in a selected view.(restriction)
For example, in the invoice case, you can define an action that opens a view that shows only invoices not paid.
The domains are written in python; list of tuples. The tuples have three elements;
the field on which the test must be done
the operator used for the test (<, >, =, like)
• the tested value
For example, if you want to obtain only ‘Draft’ invoice, use the following domain; [(‘state’,’=’,’draft’)]
In the case of a simple view, the domain define the resources which are the roots of the tree. The other resources, even if they are not
from a part of the domain will be posted if the user develop the branches of the tree.
62Window Action
Actions are explained in more detail in section “Administration Modules - Actions”. Here’s the template of an action XML record :
<record model="ir.actions.act_window" id="action_id_1">
<field name="name">action.name</field>
<field name="view_id" ref="view_id_1"/>
<field name="domain">["list of 3-tuples (max 250 characters)"]</field>
<field name="context">{"context dictionary (max 250 characters)"}</field>
<field name="res_model">Open.object</field>
<field name="view_type">form|tree</field>
<field name="view_mode">form,tree|tree,form|form|tree</field>
<field name="usage">menu</field>
<field name="target">new</field>
</record>
Where
• id is the identifier of the action in the table “ir.actions.act_window”. It must be unique.
• name is the name of the action (mandatory).
• view_id is the name of the view to display when the action is activated. If this field is not defined, the view of a
kind (list or form) associated to the object res_model with the highest priority field is used (if two views have the
same priority, the first defined view of a kind is used).
• domain is a list of constraints used to refine the results of a selection, and hence to get less records displayed in
the view. Constraints of the list are linked together with an AND clause : a record of the table will be displayed in
the view only if all the constraints are satisfied.
• context is the context dictionary which will be visible in the view that will be opened when the action is
activated. Context dictionaries are declared with the same syntax as Python dictionaries in the XML file. For
more information about context dictionaries, see section ” The context Dictionary”.
• res_model is the name of the object on which the action operates.
• view_type is set to form when the action must open a new form view, and is set to tree when the action must
open a new tree view.
• view_mode is only considered if view_type is form, and ignored otherwise. The four
possibilities are :
form,tree : the view is first displayed as a form, the list view can be displayed by clicking the “alternate view button” ;
tree,form : the view is first displayed as a list, the form view can be displayed by clicking the “alternate view button” ;
form : the view is displayed as a form and there is no way to switch to list view ;
tree : the view is displayed as a list and there is no way to switch to form view.
(version 5 introduced graph and calendar views)
usage is used [+ *TODO* +]
• target the view will open in new window like wizard.
They indicate at the user that he has to open a new window in a new ‘tab’.
Administration > Custom > Low Level > Base > Action > Window Actions
Examples of actions ¶
This action is declared in server/bin/addons/project/project_view.xml.
<record model="ir.actions.act_window" id="open_view_my_project">
<field name="name">project.project</field>
<field name="res_model">project.project</field>
<field name="view_type">tree</field>
<field name="domain">[('parent_id','=',False), ('manager', '=', uid)]</field>
<field name="view_id" ref="view_my_project" />
</record>
This action is declared in server/bin/addons/stock/stock_view.xml.
63<record model="ir.actions.act_window" id="action_picking_form">
<field name="name">stock.picking</field>
<field name="res_model">stock.picking</field>
<field name="type">ir.actions.act_window</field>
<field name="view_type">form</field>
<field name="view_id" ref="view_picking_form"/>
<field name="context">{'contact_display': 'partner'}</field>
</record>
Url Action
Wizard Action
Here’s an example of a .XML file that declares a wizard.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<openerp>
<data>
<wizard string="Employee Info"
model="hr.employee"
name="employee.info.wizard"
id="wizard_employee_info"/>
</data>
</openerp>
A wizard is declared using a wizard tag. See “Add A New Wizard” for more information about wizard XML.
also you can add wizard in menu using following xml entry
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<openerp>
<data>
<wizard string="Employee Info"
model="hr.employee"
name="employee.info.wizard"
id="wizard_employee_info"/>
<menuitem
name="Human Resource/Employee Info"
action="wizard_employee_info"
type="wizard"
id="menu_wizard_employee_info"/>
</data>
</openerp>