Hooks¶

Owl hooks are a way to factorize code, even if it depends on some component lifecycle. Most hooks provided by Owl are related to the lifecycle of a component, but some of them (such as useComponent) provide a way to build specific hooks.

Using these hooks, it is possible to build many customized hooks that help solve a specific problem, or make some common tasks easier. The rest of this page documents the list of hooks provided by the Odoo web framework.

Name	Short Description
useAssets	load assets
useAutofocus	focus automatically an element referenced by autofocus
useBus	subscribe and unsubscribe to a bus
usePager	Display the pager of the control panel of a view.
usePosition	position an element relative to a target
useSpellCheck	activate spellcheck on focus for input or textarea

useAssets¶

Location¶

@web/core/assets

Description¶

See the section on lazy loading assets for more details.

useAutofocus¶

Location¶

@web/core/utils/hooks

Description¶

Focus an element referenced by a t-ref=”autofocus” in the current component as soon as it appears in the DOM and if it was not displayed before.

import { useAutofocus } from "@web/core/utils/hooks";

class Comp {
  setup() {
    this.inputRef = useAutofocus();
  }
  static template = "Comp";
}

<t t-name="Comp">
  <input t-ref="autofocus" type="text"/>
</t>

API¶

useAutofocus()¶

Returns: the element reference.

useBus¶

Location¶

@web/core/utils/hooks

Description¶

Add and clear an event listener to a bus. This hook ensures that the listener is properly cleared when the component is unmounted.

import { useBus } from "@web/core/utils/hooks";

class MyComponent {
  setup() {
    useBus(this.env.bus, "some-event", event => {
      console.log(event);
    });
  }
}

API¶

useBus(bus, eventName, callback)¶

Arguments

bus (EventBus()) – the target event bus
eventName (string()) – the name of the event that we want to listen to
callback (function()) – listener callback

usePager¶

Location¶

@web/search/pager_hook

Description¶

Display the Pager of the control panel of a view. This hooks correctly sets env.config to provide the props to the pager.

import { usePager } from "@web/search/pager_hook";

class CustomView {
  setup() {
    const state = owl.hooks.useState({
      offset: 0,
      limit: 80,
      total: 50,
    });
    usePager(() => {
      return {
        offset: this.state.offset,
        limit: this.state.limit,
        total: this.state.total,
        onUpdate: (newState) => {
          Object.assign(this.state, newState);
        },
      };
    });
  }
}

API¶

usePager(getPagerProps)¶

Arguments

getPagerProps (function()) – function that returns the pager props.

usePosition¶

Location¶

@web/core/position_hook

Description¶

Helps positioning an HTMLElement (the popper) relatively to another HTMLElement (the reference). This hook ensures the positioning is updated when the window is resized/scrolled.

import { usePosition } from "@web/core/position_hook";
import { Component, xml } from "@odoo/owl";

class MyPopover extends Component {
  static template = xml`
    <div t-ref="popper">
      I am positioned through a wonderful hook!
    </div>
  `;

  setup() {
    // Here, the reference is the target props, which is an HTMLElement
    usePosition(this.props.target);
  }
}

Important

You should indicate your popper element using a t-ref directive.

API¶

usePosition(reference[, options])¶

Arguments

reference (HTMLElement or ()=>HTMLElement()) – the target HTMLElement to be positioned from
options (Options()) – the positioning options (see table below)

Option	Type	Description
`popper`	string	this is a useRef reference for the element that will get positioned. Default is `"popper"`.
`container`	HTMLElement	the container from which the popper is expected not to overflow. If overflowing occurs, other popper positions are tried until a not overflowing one is found. (default: the `<html/>` node)
`margin`	number	added margin between popper and reference elements (default: `0`)
`position`	Direction[-Variant]	the desired position. It is a string composed of one `Direction` and one `Variant` separated by a dash character. `Direction` could be: `top`, `bottom`, `right`, `left`. `Variant` could be: `start`, `middle`, `end`, `fit`. The variant can be omitted (default variant is `middle`). The `fit` variant means that the popper would have the exact same width or height, depending on the chosen direction. Examples of valid positions: `right-end`, `top-start`, `left-middle`, `left`, `bottom-fit`. (default position: `bottom`)
`onPositioned`	(el: HTMLElement, position: PositioningSolution) => void	a callback that will be called everytime a positioning occurs (e.g. on component mounted/patched, document scroll, window resize…). Can be used i.e. for dynamic styling regarding the current position. The `PositioningSolution` is an object having the following type: `{ direction: Direction, variant: Variant, top: number, left: number }`.

Example

import { Component, xml, useRef } from "@odoo/owl";
import { usePosition } from "@web/core/position_hook";

class DropMenu extends Component {
  static template = xml`
    <button t-ref="toggler">Toggle Menu</button>
    <div t-ref="menu">
      <t t-slot="default">
        This is the menu default content.
      </t>
    </div>
  `;

  setup() {
    const toggler = useRef("toggler");
    usePosition(
      () => toggler.el,
      {
        popper: "menu",
        position: "right-start",
        onPositioned: (el, { direction, variant }) => {
          el.classList.add(`dm-${direction}`); // -> "dm-top" "dm-right" "dm-bottom" "dm-left"
          el.style.backgroundColor = variant === "middle" ? "red" : "blue";
        },
      },
    );
  }
}

useSpellCheck¶

Location¶

@web/core/utils/hooks

Description¶

Activate the spellcheck state to an input or textarea on focus by a t-ref="spellcheck" in the current component. This state is then removed on blur, as well as the red outline, which improves readability of the content.

The hook can also be used on any HTML element with the contenteditable attribute. To disable spellcheck completely on elements that might be enabled by the hook, set explicitly the spellcheck attribute as false on the element.

Example

In the following example, the spellcheck will be enabled on the first input, the textarea and the div with contenteditable="true".

import { useSpellCheck } from "@web/core/utils/hooks";

class Comp {
  setup() {
    this.simpleRef = useSpellCheck();
    this.customRef = useSpellCheck({ refName: "custom" });
    this.nodeRef = useSpellCheck({ refName: "container" });
  }
  static template = "Comp";
}

<t t-name="Comp">
  <input t-ref="spellcheck" type="text"/>
  <textarea t-ref="custom"/>
  <div t-ref="container">
    <input type="text" spellcheck="false"/>
    <div contenteditable="true"/>
  </div>
</t>

API¶

useSpellCheck([options])¶

Arguments

options (Options()) – the spellcheck options (see table below)

Option	Type	Description
`refName`	string	this is a useRef reference for the element that will be spellcheck enabled.