shortcut

Canned responses in Odoo Discuss are triggered by typing :: followed by a shortcut, and picking the suggestion that pops up. The configuration form for those responses stores only the shortcut text, which left a small gap: the admin types hello into a field, while users trigger it as ::hello. Odoo 19 closed that gap with the shortcut widget, which renders the field with a non-editable :: printed immediately before the input.

Reading the source, it is one of the smallest field widgets in the codebase: a component that wraps the standard CharField, a template that puts a :: span next to it, and a getter that forces the placeholder to e.g. hello. There is no descriptor, no options, no extractProps. The stored value is the bare shortcut; the colons are pure presentation.

Core applies it to the source field of mail.canned.response in all three of that model's views, so whether you manage canned responses as a list, a form or kanban cards, the shortcut always appears in its trigger syntax.

Canned responses are one of the quietest productivity wins in Odoo: support and sales teams that live in Discuss or the chatter answer routine questions in two keystrokes instead of twenty words. The widget's contribution is small but real, it teaches the syntax passively. Anyone who edits a canned response sees ::hello and knows exactly what to type in a conversation, without reading documentation.

If you are rolling canned responses out to a team, this page's practical advice is about the data, not the widget: keep shortcuts short, lowercase and collision-free, and agree on a naming scheme per team, such as ::inv- prefixes for invoicing answers. The widget will faithfully display whatever chaos you create.

For developers, the widget doubles as a pattern: when a stored value is always used with a fixed prefix, showing that prefix in the form removes a whole class of user confusion. The source is fifteen lines, easy to copy for a # reference field or a keyboard-trigger field in a custom app.

The core pattern, from the canned responses views

<field name="source" widget="shortcut" readonly="not is_editable"/>

Reusing it on a custom trigger field

<field name="trigger_code" widget="shortcut"/>

Any char field accepts it, but the :: prefix and the e.g. hello placeholder come along unconditionally, so it only makes sense where the double-colon syntax is true.

The registration style is the technical detail worth noticing. Most field widgets register a descriptor object with supportedTypes, supportedOptions and extractProps; this one registers { component: ShortcutCharField } and nothing else. Consequences, all verified in source:

No type guard. Without supportedTypes, the widget never warns about field types. It will happily mount on any field whose value a CharField can render, and produce odd results on non-char types.

No option plumbing. With no extractProps, nothing from options="{}" reaches the component. Attributes that the standard char widget would honor through its own extractProps, like password or autocomplete hints, are also out, because this registration bypasses the char descriptor entirely and only reuses its component and props shape.

The prefix is not part of the value. The template renders :: in a separate span, so searching, exporting and the Discuss matcher all see the raw shortcut text. Users who type the colons into the field itself create a response triggered by ::::hello, which is the one real data-entry mistake this widget cannot prevent.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026, and as always we read the public development branch rather than guessing, with the caveat that it is unstable until release.

Nothing user-facing changes on master. The file's only diff is the framework-wide props migration (useProps and shared charFieldProps instead of static props), part of the same wave touching most field widgets this cycle. Registration name, template, the :: span and the hardcoded placeholder are all intact.

The pattern to watch is around it, not in it: canned responses themselves gained scope and role features across recent versions, so if you customize that screen, re-test the whole view after the upgrade rather than this widget alone. We re-verify this page against the shipped release.