Development Book V17: Menu Action

There are two approaches in Odoo to navigate between pages: utilizing both the user interface and code to create menus. To add menus and their corresponding actions, XML is employed based on the code. Consequently, a new XML file should be generated within the views folder.

The menu item tag is utilized to create new menus in Odoo. The "name" attribute governs the presentation of the menu's name, and the optional "sequence" attribute determines its display order. Additionally, an icon can be added to the menu using the "web_icon" attribute. The menu becomes visible on the screen only if the menu item or any of its submenus is linked to an action.For example:


<menuitem id="hospital_menu_root" name="Hospital Management" sequence="25" 
web_icon="hospital_management,static/description/icon.png"/>

Sub Menu

To create a submenu in Odoo, it is essential to have a parent menu. Submenus are associated with main menus, and this hierarchical structure helps organize navigation.

For example:


<menuitem id="hospital_menu_hospital" name="Hospital" parent="hospital_menu_root"/>
<menuitem id="hospital_patient_menu" name="Patient"
          parent="hospital_menu_hospital" action="hospital_patient_action"
          sequence="2"/>

There are two submenus available. The main menu features a submenu dedicated to hospitals. Within the Hospital menu, you'll find options for Patients. The Patient menu is equipped with action, so selecting a menu item triggers the display of the associated action.

The subsequent step involves defining the action. Either the menu or its submenu must be associated with an action to enable the viewing of the menu content.

For example:


<record id="hospital_patient_action" model="ir.actions.act_window">
    <field name="name">Patients</field>
    <field name="res_model">hospital.patient</field>
    <field name="view_mode">tree,form</field>
    <field name="help" type="html">
        <p class="o_view_nocontent_smiling_face">No patients found. Let's create one!</p>
    </field>
</record>

Here,

name:The name of action associated with the menu.
res_model: Model associated with the menu.
view_mode: Defines the viewing modes for the action. In this case, it includes both "tree" (list view) and "form" (form view).
help: The "help" field contains an HTML snippet providing guidance or information. In this example, it includes messages to be displayed when no patients are found.

Menus from UI

To create and edit menus and submenus through the user interface, navigate to Settings > Technical > User Interface > Menu Items. Ensure that developer mode is enabled for this functionality.

Click the New button for creating a new Menu.

Menu - Name of the menu
Parent Menu - The parent menu
Sequence - Sequence of the menu item.
Action - Specify the action.
Access Rights - Granting access privileges enables restriction of access to specific user groups.
Submenus - Optionally add submenus here to extend the menu. Once the form is saved, the menus become visible when navigating to the corresponding module.

In this menu, "Reports" has recently been added. This demonstrates that the user interface can be utilized to create new menus and submenus.