Exporting and importing CSV data files

An easy way to generate data files and get an insight on what structure the files should have is to use the built-in export feature.

With generated CSV files, we can learn about the format that's needed to import data manually into the system, or edit them to perform mass updates, or even use them to produce demo data for our add-on modules.

Here, we will learn about the basics of exporting and importing data from Odoo's user interface.

Exporting data

Data exporting is a standard feature that's available in any list view. To use it, we must first pick the rows to export by selecting the corresponding checkboxes, on the far left, and then selecting the Export option from the Action button at the top of the list.

 

First, we should add a couple of Odoo books to the Library app, with their publishers and authors. For the following example, we created Odoo Development Essentials 11 and Odoo 11 Development Cookbook.

We also need to have the Contacts app installed...