many2many_tags_placeholder_list_view

Tag columns in a list have an awkward empty state. A cell with no tags renders as nothing at all, which on a dense list is indistinguishable from a rendering fault, and gives the user nowhere obvious to click to add one.

This widget fixes that with a template. The tags themselves and everything about how they behave are inherited from the standard tags widget; the replacement template is what draws a placeholder when the cell is empty.

That is the entire difference. There is no extra option, no new prop and no behavioral change, which makes it one of the smallest widgets in Odoo and a good example of how far a template substitution goes.

Empty states are the part of an interface that gets designed last and noticed first. A list column that goes blank teaches users that the data is unreliable, and a placeholder costs nothing to add.

The reusable lesson is that a great many widget requests are template requests. Before writing behavior, check whether replacing the template on an existing widget gets you there, because that keeps every inherited option working.

The usual usage

<field name="tag_ids"
       widget="many2many_tags_placeholder_list_view"/>

Tags as usual, with a placeholder when the cell is empty.

With inherited options

<field name="tag_ids"
       widget="many2many_tags_placeholder_list_view"
       options="{'color_field': 'color', 'no_quick_create': True}"/>

Everything the tags widget accepts works, because the descriptor is spread unchanged.

The plain tags widget

<field name="tag_ids" widget="many2many_tags"/>

Identical behavior, with an empty cell showing nothing.

The file is under twenty lines. A subclass that names a different template, a descriptor that spreads the base and adds the standard tags styling class, and the registration.

The styling class matters more than it looks. Adding it keeps the cell visually consistent with other tag columns, which is what stops a replaced template from drifting away from the rest of the interface.

Because the extractor is not touched, the inherited options all continue to function. That is worth contrasting with several widgets elsewhere in Odoo that replace both the template and the extractor and silently lose everything the base would have read.

Everything visible about the placeholder itself, its wording and its styling, lives in the template rather than in this file.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026. The development branch is unstable and this may still change; we re-verify this page after the release.

Byte-identical. The file on the development branch matches Odoo 19 exactly.