so_line_create_button

The so_line_create_button widget upgrades the Sales Order Item field on project tasks. Rendered normally, it is a plain many2one over sale.order.line. Its addition is a small plus link next to the input that appears only while the record is editable and sale_line_id is still empty.

Clicking the plus opens a form dialog titled Create Sales Order on sale.order, not on the line. When the user saves the new order, the widget calls the server method get_first_service_line on it and writes the returned line into the task's sale_line_id. The user never picks a line manually; the first service line of the fresh order is wired in automatically.

This widget exists for the services flow where delivery starts before sales paperwork: a project manager creates tasks, work begins, and only later does someone need an order to bill against. Instead of leaving the task, creating an order in Sales, finding the right line and coming back, the whole loop happens in one dialog from the task form. Timesheets on the task then bill against the linked line.

The context defaults are deliberate: the new order is preset to the task's company or the user's active company, the current user becomes the salesperson, and the PDF quote builder pane is hidden because the dialog exists to mint a billable line, not to design a quote document.

<!-- Core usage on the project task form (sale_project module) -->
<field name="sale_line_id"
       widget="so_line_create_button"
       placeholder="Non-billable"
       context="{'so_form_view_ref': 'sale.view_order_form', 'dialog_size': 'large'}"/>

The so_form_view_ref context key is how the caller controls which sale order form the dialog shows; the widget passes it through as form_view_ref. The placeholder Non-billable is the core touch that tells users an empty field is a valid state.

The write back is worth reading closely. get_first_service_line is called on sale.order after the dialog saves and returns a list of line ids; the widget writes the first one into sale_line_id. If the order the user built contains no service products, there is no service line to link, and the task keeps an empty field even though an order now exists, a surprise worth training teams on.

Two packaging quirks: the component file ships in sale_project, but its QWeb template is named sale_timesheet.SoLineCreateButton, a leftover from where the widget was first drafted. And because the descriptor comes from buildM2OFieldDescription, everything a many2one can do, barcode scanning, typeahead thresholds, dynamic placeholders, works here even though none of it is used in core views.

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 file moves modules: on the development branch it lives in sale_service, part of a restructuring of the sale and project bridge modules, and it is migrated to the new props system. Behavior, the dialog context and the first service line write back are unchanged. Custom modules importing it from @sale_project paths will need their imports updated. We re-verify after the release.