priority_switch

Priority on an Odoo task is a selection field, usually two values, rendered as stars. The generic priority widget draws those stars and offers a single command palette entry that opens a submenu. priority_switch, defined in the project module, subclasses it and rewrites only the commands getter: it maps the selection values to individual commands, one per level, each named "Set priority as %s" with the level's label filled in.

All of those commands carry the same alt+r hotkey and an isAvailable check that hides the level the record is already on. With Odoo's default two-value priority (Normal and High), that arithmetic means exactly one command is available at any moment, so pressing Alt+R on a task form flips the star on or off without ever opening a menu. On a customized selection with more levels, Alt+R triggers the first available level and the rest remain reachable through the palette by name.

This is a widget about speed for heavy keyboard users, and it only pays off if your team knows it exists. A dispatcher triaging forty tasks a morning does not want to reach for the mouse to star the urgent ones; Alt+R from the task form does it in a keystroke, and typing "Set priority" into the command palette (Ctrl+K) shows every level by name.

The design also carries a small data-quality lesson for customizers. Teams routinely extend task priority to four or five levels, then discover users only ever set the extremes. Because this widget surfaces each level as a first-class named command, a longer scale at least stays reachable from the keyboard, but the underlying star row still requires precise clicking. If you extend the selection, test the experience in kanban, where stars are small and mis-clicks change data, and consider whether two levels plus a separate urgency field serves the process better.

If your priority process involves automatic escalation, follow-up activities, or SLA timers, none of that belongs in the widget; it needs automation rules or server code triggered by the field's value.

As core uses it on the task form

<field name="priority" class="h3 pe-2" widget="priority_switch"/>

Without immediate save

<field name="priority" widget="priority_switch"
       options="{'autosave': False}"/>

The star toggles as a pending edit and commits with the normal form save.

On a custom model

<field name="urgency" widget="priority_switch"/>

Works on any selection field once the project module is installed. Each selection value after the first renders as one star, and each value gets its own palette command.

The whole widget is one getter. The base class builds a single command; the subclass builds an array:

get commands() {
    return this.options.map(([id, name]) => [
        _t("Set priority as %s", name),
        () => this.updateRecord(id),
        { category: "smart_action", hotkey: "alt+r",
          isAvailable: () => this.props.record.data[this.props.name] !== id },
    ]);
}

Three details follow from the source. First, this.options is the full selection list including the first "no star" value, so "Set priority as Normal" is a real command: the keyboard can clear a priority, something the star row itself only does via the click-current-star-to-clear behavior inherited from the base widget. Second, the shared hotkey is resolved by availability, so Alt+R is deterministic only when exactly one command is available, which is the two-level case. With three or more levels, rely on the palette names rather than the hotkey. Third, extractProps sets withCommand to true only for viewType === "form", so none of this exists in list or kanban views; there the widget is behaviorally identical to plain priority.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026. These notes are read from the public development branch, which remains unstable until feature freeze; we re-verify against the shipped release.

The widget's own file is unchanged on master. Upstream, the base priority widget it extends deletes the autosave option: the update call no longer takes a save flag, so options="{'autosave': False}" would stop having any effect through this widget as well. The base widget also reworks how the current level's label is displayed next to the stars. If your views or tests depend on the no-autosave configuration, plan a retest on Odoo 20.