In my journey with Odoo, one of the most exciting aspects has always been the platform’s flexibility. Odoo's website module, for example, offers a robust and modular platform, enabling users to customize, extend, and integrate diverse web functionalities seamlessly. Although the website module comes with many building blocks to get a website up and running quickly. Yet, often I whished there were other specific website features available that I could also easily drag-and-drop into my design. That's what led me to the intricate world of custom website snippets in Odoo. Today, I want to share my insights and guide us through the process of developing tailored snippets that can elevate our Odoo sites.
For this tutorial we will be building 'buy me a coffee' button that we can use as a snippet. Obviously there would be easier ways to include such a button on your website, but for educational purposes, I think this it serves as a good example. For those of you who are unaware of a 'buy me a coffee' button, it provides a simple yet effective way for content creators, developers, or any online professional to receive small tokens of appreciation in the form of coffee-sized donations from their audience, like the one in the sidebar. Feel free to buy me a coffee 😊
The Snippet
For the 'Buy me a Coffee' snippet we will develop a custom theme. The theme will use the file structure below:
custom_theme/ ├── static/ │ └── src/ │ ├── img/ │ │ └── snippets_thumbs/
│ │ └── s_buy_coffee.svg │ └── snippets/ │ └── s_buy_coffee/ │ └── 000.scss ├── views/
│ ├── s_buy_coffee.xml
│ └── snippets.xml └── __manifest__.py
Note
You could also create a regular Odoo module instead of a website theme. The module category would be Website/Website instead of Theme/WebsiteThis would be a better choice if you would use multiple websites and you want to use the snippet in several of them.
Let's go through each file in our theme. The __manifest__.py in Odoo is a configuration file that defines module metadata, dependencies, and other essential information for module installation and execution.
{
'name': 'Custom Theme',
'description': 'Custom theme for building snippets with options',
'category': 'Theme/Website',
'version': '16.0.0',
'author': 'Jort de Vreeze',
'license': 'AGPL-3',
'depends': ['website'],
'data': [
'views/snippets/s_buy_coffee.xml',
'views/snippets/snippets.xml',
],
'assets': {
'web.assets_frontend': [
'custom_theme/static/src/snippets/s_buy_coffee/000.scss',
],
},
}
The 'data' section in the manifest lists XML files, indicating that the defined views and components in s_buy_coffee.xml and snippets.xml should be loaded. The 'assets' section in the __manifest__.py specifies that the 000.scss file should be loaded with the frontend assets bundle of the Odoo web module.
Note
In Odoo, the naming convention 000.js for JavaScript and 000.scss for SCSS files associated with website snippets is employed to prioritize the loading sequence of those files. This convention is based on the principle of ensuring dependencies and it makes sure that core features are loaded first, before other modular or optional features.
Another advantage is that by using numbers like 000, it leaves room for other developers to insert files in between, if ever there's a need. For example, if someone wants a file to load after 000 but before others, they could name it 001.
The s_buy_coffee.xml file contains the structure for the 'buy me a coffee' snippet, detailing its layout and behavior, while the snippets.xml file serves as a registry or collection of multiple snippets, ensuring they are recognized and accessible within the Odoo interface. For a single snippet you could place everything in one XML file, but by separating functionalities or components into distinct files, it's easier to manage, update, or expand individual parts without affecting others. This is especially helpful for larger projects/modules. Let's discuss the s_buy_coffee.xml first:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<odoo>
<template id="custom_s_buy_coffee" name="Buy me a Coffee">
<section class="s_buy_coffee">
<div class="container py-2">
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cookie&display=swap%22 rel="stylesheet"/>
<a class="bmc-btn" target="_blank" href="https://buymeacoffee.com/jortdevreeze%22%3E
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22 viewBox="0 0 884 1279" fill="none" class="">
<path d="M791.109 297.518L790.231 297.002L788.201 296.383C789.018 297.072 790.04 297.472 791.109 297.518Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
<path d="M803.896 388.891L802.916 389.166L803.896 388.891Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
<path d="M791.484 297.377C791.359 297.361 791.237 297.332 791.118 297.29C791.111 297.371 791.111 297.453 791.118 297.534C791.252 297.516 791.379 297.462 791.484 297.377Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
<path d="M791.113 297.529H791.244V297.447L791.113 297.529Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
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<path d="M281.304 1196.06C280.427 1195.3 279.354 1194.8 278.207 1194.61C279.136 1195.06 280.065 1195.51 280.684 1195.85L281.304 1196.06Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
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<path class="logo-coffee" d="M472.623 590.836C426.682 610.503 374.546 632.802 306.976 632.802C278.71 632.746 250.58 628.868 223.353 621.274L270.086 1101.08C271.74 1121.13 280.876 1139.83 295.679 1153.46C310.482 1167.09 329.87 1174.65 349.992 1174.65C349.992 1174.65 416.254 1178.09 438.365 1178.09C462.161 1178.09 533.516 1174.65 533.516 1174.65C553.636 1174.65 573.019 1167.08 587.819 1153.45C602.619 1139.82 611.752 1121.13 613.406 1101.08L663.459 570.876C641.091 563.237 618.516 558.161 593.068 558.161C549.054 558.144 513.591 573.303 472.623 590.836Z" fill="#FFDD00"></path>
<path d="M78.6885 386.132L79.4799 386.872L79.9962 387.182C79.5987 386.787 79.1603 386.435 78.6885 386.132Z" fill="#0D0C22"></path>
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</svg>
<span class="bmc-btn-text">Buy me a coffee</span>
</a>
</div>
</section>
</template>
</odoo>
This XML code defines a template for a 'Buy me a Coffee' button, including its layout and design. When this template is rendered in an Odoo view, it will display a button that users can click to navigate to the 'Buy me a Coffee' page. The <template id="custom_s_buy_coffee" name="Buy me a Coffee"> element defines a template in the QWeb templating engine used by Odoo and it contains a unique identifier and a friendly name for the snippet. This ID can be referenced elsewhere in the code to call or inherit from this template. The <section class="s_buy_coffee"> is used to denote a standalone section of content. In the context of Odoo website snippets, this would represent the main container or wrapper of the snippet's content. The class is specific to this snippet. The 's_' prefix is commonly used in Odoo to identify website snippets. When styling the snippet with CSS or targeting it with JavaScript, this class can be used. The remainder is standard html and the SVG paths represent a coffee cup, both belonging to the 'Buy Me a Coffee' integration.
In the snippets.xml file we define our snippet, so that it appears as a snippet in the 'Blocks' section of the website editor. The XML file contains two templates that extend existing functionality for website snippets.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<odoo>
<template id="custom_website_snippets" inherit_id="website.snippets">
<xpath expr="//div[@id='snippet_content']//t[@t-snippet][last()]" position="after">
<t
t-snippet="custom_theme.custom_s_buy_coffee"
t-thumbnail="/custom_theme/static/src/img/snippets_thumbs/s_buy_coffee.svg"
/>
</xpath>
</template>
<template id="custom_snippet_options" inherit_id="website.snippet_options">
<xpath expr="." position="inside">
<div data-selector=".s_buy_coffee .bmc-btn">
<we-select string="Font family">
<we-button data-select-class="font-default">Default</we-button>
<we-button data-select-class="font-primary">Headings</we-button>
<we-button data-select-class="font-secondary">Buttons</we-button>
</we-select>
<we-colorpicker
string="Font Color"
data-name="buy_coffee_font_colorpicker_opt"
data-select-style="true"
data-css-property="color"
data-color-prefix="buy-coffee-"
/>
<we-colorpicker
string="Background Color"
data-name="buy_coffee_bg_colorpicker_opt"
data-select-style="true"
data-css-property="background-color"
data-color-prefix="buy-coffee-"
/>
</div>
</xpath>
</template>
</odoo>The first template template adds a new snippet to the website builder's snippet options. This allows the snippet to appear in the list of website snippets in the editor. The <template id="custom_website_snippets" inherit_id="website.snippets">extends the original website snippet template, so that the custom snippet can be placed among all other website snippets. The xpath statement looks for the last existing content snippet and places the new snippet right after it. The t-snippetattribute links the snippet to the snippet template defined in the s_buy_coffee.xmlfile and the t-thumbnailattributes uses the s_buy_coffee.svgthumbnail.
The second template provides additional options for customizing the snippet in the website builder. For this snippet we want to able to select the font family, font color, and the button background color. The <template id="custom_snippet_options" inherit_id="website.snippet_options"> extends the snippet options from the website module. The <div data-selector=".s_buy_coffee .bmc-btn"> specify that the options apply to all elements with these class names in the snippet. The options include a dropdown list to choose between default, headings, and buttons font. These three font family types in the list will be defined in the 000.scssfile. The font color, and background color options uses a integrated color-picker and the selected color is attached to the color and background-color style attribute of the element.
Note
A better way to apply options for elements inside the snippet is by using Javascript. However, the purpose of this tutorial is to keeps things simple and to demonstrate that the same can be achieved without Javascript.
We also need a stylesheet for the snippet, that handles the formatting of the snippet template. The snippet stylesheet will be placed in the 000.scss.
$s_buy_coffee-font-family: 'Cookie', cursive;
$s_buy_coffee-font-size: 32px;
.s_buy_coffee {
.bmc-btn {
min-width: 210px;
font-size: $s_buy_coffee-font-size;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 12px;
border: none;
padding: 8px 24px;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
box-sizing: border-box;
&.font-default {
font-family: $s_buy_coffee-font-family;
}
&.font-primary {
font-family: var(--headings-font);
}
&.font-secondary {
font-family: var(--buttons-font);
}
&:hover,
&:active,
&:focus {
text-decoration: none;
cursor: pointer;
}
svg {
height: 32px;
margin-bottom: 0;
box-shadow: none;
border: none;
vertical-align: middle;
transform: scale(0.9);
flex-shrink: 0;
}
.bmc-btn-text {
margin-left: 8px;
display: inline-block;
line-height: 0;
width: 100%;
flex-shrink: 0;
}
.logo-outline {
fill: #000000;
}
}
}
This file contains the default stylesheet from the Buy Me a Coffeeintegration (for more information, see their documentation). But for this snippet we need to specify three font-family options (.font-default, .font-primary, and .font-secondary) that we specified earlier in the font list. For the latter two we use the default fonts used as primary font and buttons font, but you could use a custom font here as well.
Now everything is in place we can activate our theme by clicking on the 'Use this theme' button and add the 'Buy me a Coffee' snippet to our website.
If you now go back to the website editor, our new snippet should be there. Now drag-and-drop the snippet somewhere on your website, just like any other snippet.
If you click on the 'Buy Me a Coffee' button you see the options that we specified earlier for this snippet.
You can now customize your snippet with just a few clicks. For this particular snippet you can change the font family, font color, and the button background color. That's it! You now have a custom snippet with options in your Odoo theme.