Odoo 12 Development Essentials - Fourth Edition

Calling model methods

An XML file can also execute arbitrary methods during its load process through the <function> element. This can be used to set up demo and test data.

For example, the Notes app, which is bundled with Odoo, uses it to set up demonstration data:

<data noupdate="1"> <function  
   model="res.users"  
   name="_init_data_user_note_stages" 
   eval="[]" /></data> 

This calls the _init_data_user_note_stages method of the res.users Model, passing no arguments. The argument list is provided by the eval attribute, which is an empty list in this case.