In OpenERP, how can I force SQL to run when a module is installed?

odoo

Solution

You can achieve this by adding a `function` entry in a data xml file of the module.

<openerp>
  <data>
    <!-- ... your init data records ...-->
    <function model="res.partner" name="_my_init_mehod"/>
  </data>
</openerp>

You can see a working example of this in the standard module `document`: `document_data.xml` declares a call to the function `_attach_parent_id` to migrate all attachments to the new DMS structure at the end of the installation.

Problem

I have a module built in OpenERP that adds some fields to existing models. The definition is roughly as follows: ``` class res_partner(osv.osv): _name = _inherit = 'res.partner' _columns = { 'my_special_id': fields.integer('Special ID', required=False, readonly=True), } _defaults = { 'my_special_id': lambda *a: None } _sql_constraints = [ ('special_id_uniq', 'UNIQUE (my_special_id)', 'Must be unique.'), } _sql = """CREATE UNIQUE INDEX special_id_limited_uniq ON res_partner (my_special_id) WHERE my_special_id != 0 """ res_partner() ``` My goal is to have a field (special_id_uniq) that: - Defaults to NULL - Is an integer - Is unique, across all values, except for NULL My first instinct was to create the _sql_constraint definition above, but this caused issues: apparently OpenERP doesn't have nullable integer fields, so 'None' is treated as 0. This breaks the SQL constraint, as now multiple values of 0 must be allowed. To get around this, I removed the _sql_constraints option on the model and added the _sql code which creates a PostgreSQL partial index. To verify that it works, I ran the SQL myself on PostgreSQL and it acheives my desired effect. However, when I create a new DB via OpenERP and install my custom module, this SQL is not run. That is because the model is not being created: ``` def _auto_init(self, cr, context=None): #... create = not self._table_exist(cr) #... #Line 3046 of openerp/osv/orm.py version 6.1 function _auto_init if create: self._execute_sql(cr) #... ``` So, how can I run some custom SQL at the point of module installation?

Original source