many2one_barcode

many2one_barcode renders a relational field exactly like the standard many2one, autocomplete, quick create, internal link, and adds one thing: the barcode scan affordance is always on. The entire widget is a component wrapper plus an extractProps that returns the base many2one props with canScanBarcode: true.

That flag activates the scanner integration built into the base Many2One component. In Odoo's mobile environment a barcode icon appears in the field; tapping it opens the camera, and the decoded value is pushed through name_search. When exactly one record matches, it is selected without any typing. When several match, the normal dropdown opens with the scanned text as the query.

On a desktop browser without the mobile barcode integration the icon simply never renders, which is why the widget is safe to put on views shared by both desktop and mobile users.

This widget is the cheapest barcode win in Odoo. Before reaching for the full Barcode app, a sales or accounting team can make the product field on order and invoice lines scannable with a single XML attribute: warehouse staff scan the product label, the line fills, no typing, no picking the wrong variant from a list of lookalikes.

Because everything else stays standard many2one, the usual guardrails combine freely: no_create to prevent typo products, domains to restrict what may be scanned into the field, and from 19 a typeahead threshold for very large catalogs.

The core usage from account_move_views.xml, a product field in the invoice line dialog:

<field name="product_id" widget="many2one_barcode"/>

Combined with inherited many2one options, scanning allowed but manual creation blocked:

<field name="product_id" widget="many2one_barcode"
       options="{'no_create': True, 'no_open': True}"/>

For a widget this small, its history is a neat tour of Odoo's field framework refactors:

16 through 18: the widget subclassed Many2OneField and set canScanBarcode: true in defaultProps. Because it was only a default, a view could theoretically override it back to false.

19: the composition refactor rebuilt it as a plain component wrapping Many2One, and the flag moved into extractProps, where it is now unconditional. The refactor also left behind export const many2OneBarcodeField = {}, an empty object that nothing imports, while the real registration happens inline with buildM2OFieldDescription.

Matching semantics live in the base many2one, not here: the scanned string goes through the same name_search as typed text. That means barcode matching only works if the target model's name_search covers barcode values, as product.product does; on a model that only searches names, scanning fills the dropdown with the raw code as a query and usually finds nothing.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026. The changes below are read from the public development branch and are not final until release.

The widget is functionally untouched on master. The only diff is the framework wide props migration (useProps and the shared many2OneFieldProps export replacing the class props copy). The hardcoded canScanBarcode: true and the registration are identical. We will re verify this page against the released branch after the launch.