About Odoo base Models

Throughout this chapter, we have had the chance to create a new Books Model, but also to make use of the already existing Partners Model. It is worth learning more about these out-of-the-box models.

At the core of Odoo, we have the base addon module. This provides the essential features needed for Odoo apps. Then, we have a set of built-in addon modules, providing the official apps and features made available with the standard product.

The base module provides two kinds of Models:

• Information Repository, ir.* models
• Resources, res.* models

The Information Repository is used to store data needed by Odoo to know how to work as an application, such as Menus, Views, Models, Actions, and so on. The data we find in the Technical menu is usually stored in Information Repository models. Some relevant examples are:

• ir.action.act_window for Windows Actions
• ir.ui.menu for Menu Items
• ir.ui.view for Views
• ir.model for Models
• ir.model.fields for Model Fields

The resources contain basic data about the world, which can be useful for many of the applications. These are a few relevant resource models:

• res.partner for business partners, such as customers, suppliers, and so on
• res.company for company data
• res.currency for currencies
• res.country for countries
• res.users for application users
• res.groups for application security groups

This should provide you with a useful context to better understand where the Models come from whenever you come across them in the future.