Get Started With Discuss

Discuss Module (Enterprise 14.
0)
Get Started with Discuss
Discuss allows you to bring all of your company’s communication together through
messages, notes, and chat. Share information, projects, files, prioritize tasks, and stay
connected with colleagues and partners throughout applications. Forge better
relationships, increase productivity and transparency by promoting a convenient way of
communicating.
Choose your notifications preference

Access your Preferences and choose how you would like your notifications to be
handled.
By default, the field is set as Handle by Emails making messages, notes, and
notifications where you were mentioned or that you follow, to be sent through email. By
choosing Handle in Odoo, they are shown in the Inbox.
Messages can then be Marked as Todo, Replied, or Marked as Read.
Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 1

Discuss Module (Enterprise 14.0)
The messages tagged as Mark as Todo are also shown in Starred, while the ones
Marked as Read are moved to History.
Start Chatting
The first time you log in to your account, OdooBot sends you a message asking for
permission to receive desktop notifications to chats. If accepted, you receive push
notifications to the messages sent to you despite of where you are in Odoo.

Tip
To stop receiving desktop notifications, reset the notifications settings of your browser.
To start a chat, click on New Message on the Messaging Menu, or go to Discuss and
send a Direct Message.

You can also create public and private channels.
Mentions in the chat and on the Chatter

To mention a user within a chat or the chatter type @user-name; to refer to a channel,
type #channel-name.
A notification is sent to the user mentioned either to his Inbox or through email,
depending on his settings.

Tip
When a user is mentioned, the search list (list of names) suggests values first based on the task’s
followers, and secondly on Employees. If the record being searched does not match with either a
follower or employee, the scope of the search becomes all partners.
Chat status
It is helpful to see what colleagues are up to and how quickly they can respond to
messages by checking their Status. The status is shown on the left side of a contact’s
names on Discuss’ sidebar and on the Messaging menu.
● Green = online
● Orange = away
● White = offline
● Airplane = out of the office

See also
● Efficiently Communicate Using Channels
● How to Use my Mail Server to Send and Receive Emails in Odoo

Efficiently Communicate Using Channels
You can use channels to organize discussions between individual teams, departments,
projects, or any other group that requires regular communication. This way, you keep
everyone in the loop updated with the latest developments.
Public and Private channels

A Public channel can be seen by everyone, while a Private one is only visible to users
invited to it.
Tip

A public channel is best used when many employees need to access information (such as company
announcements), whereas a private channel could be used whenever information should be limited
to specific groups (such as a specific department).
Configuration options
You can configure a channel’s name, description, email alias, and privacy by clicking on
the Channel Settings icon on the sidebar.
Privacy and Members

Changing Who can follow the group’s activities? allows you to control which groups can
have access to the channel. Note that allowing Everyone to follow a private channel lets
other users view and join it, as they would a public one.

If you choose Invited people only, go to the Members tab to add your members, or, go
to Discuss’ main page, select the channel and click on Invite.
For Selected group of users, the option Auto Subscribe Groups automatically add its
members as followers. In other words, while Authorized Groups limits which users can
access the channel, Auto Subscribe Groups automatically adds the user as a member
as long as they are part of the group.
Use a channel as a mailing list

Choosing to Send messages by email configures the channel to behave as a mailing
list.
Enabling this option allows you to Moderate this channel, meaning that messages will
need to be approved before being sent.

Under the Moderation tab choose as many moderators as you need, and if you would
like them to receive an Automatic notification.
Mark Send guidelines to new subscribers to automatically send instructions to
newcomers.
Moderators can: Accept, Reject, Discard, Always Allow or Ban messages.

Note
Members of a mailing channel receive messages through email regardless of their notification
preference.
Once a channel is moderated, the menu Ban List allows you to add email addresses per
moderated channel to auto-ban them from sending messages.
Quick search bar

Once at least 20 channels, direct message and live chat conversations (if the module is
installed on your database) are pinned in the sidebar, a Quick search… bar is displayed.
It is a clever way to filter conversations and quickly find the one you need.

Finding channels
Click on Channels (on the sidebar), browse through the list of public channels, and join
or leave them from a single screen.
Apply filters criteria and save it for later use. The search function accepts wildcards by
using the underscore character (_) to represent a single character.

See also
● Get Started with Discuss
● Get Organized by Planning Activities

Get Organized by Planning Activities

When you plan activities you minimize the risk of uncertainties, as you provide clear
directions for the course of your next action. In addition to that, you do not leave space
for wasteful activities and reduce the chance of having overlapping actions between
team members.
Where do I see my schedule activities?

Access and manage your activities wherever you are in Odoo by the Activities menu.

Plan activities
Activities can be planned and managed from the chatter by clicking on Schedule
activity, or through Kanban views.
Set your activity types

A number of activities types are available by default in Odoo (call, email, meeting, etc.).
However, you can set new ones going to Settings ‣ Activity types.

Tip
If you need to create an activity type with an available calendar, make sure to create it with an Action
to Perform set as Meeting.
Recommend next activities

Odoo helps you to plan a flow of activities by allowing you to set Recommended Next
Activities.

Once the respective activity is completed, select Done & Schedule Next and next steps
are suggested to you.
See also
● Get Started with Discuss
● Efficiently Communicate Using Channels

How to Use my Mail Server to Send and Receive

Emails in Odoo
If you are a user of Odoo Online or Odoo.sh…

You have nothing to do! Odoo sets up its own mail servers for your database.
Outgoing and incoming emails work out-of-the-box!
Unless you plan to send large batches of mass mailing that could require the use of an
external mail server, simply enjoy your new Odoo database.
Scope of this documentation

This document is mainly dedicated to Odoo on-premise users who don’t benefit from
an out-of-the-box solution to send and receive emails in Odoo, unlike Odoo Online &
Odoo.sh.
Warning
If no one in your company is used to manage email servers, we strongly recommend that you opt for
those Odoo hosting solutions. Their email system works instantly and is monitored by professionals.
Nevertheless you can still use your own email servers if you want to manage your email server’s
reputation yourself.
You will find here below some useful information on how to integrate your own email
solution with Odoo.
Note
Office 365 email servers don’t easily allow to send external emails from hosts like Odoo. Refer to
Microsoft’s documentation to make it work.

How to manage outbound messages

As a system admin, go to Settings ‣ General Settings and check External Email Servers.
Then, click Outgoing Mail Servers to create one and reference the SMTP data of your
email server. Once all the information has been filled out, click on Test Connection.
Here is a typical configuration for a G Suite server.
Then set your email domain name in the General Settings.
Note
If you get a [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure) warning when you Test
Connection on a Gmail address, activate the Less secure app access option. A direct link can be
accessed here.
In addition to that, enable the IMAP setting on your Gmail account.
Can I use an Office 365 server

You can use an Office 365 server if you run Odoo on-premise. Office 365 SMTP relays
are not compatible with Odoo Online.
Please refer to Microsoft’s documentation to configure a SMTP relay for your Odoo’s IP
address.

How to use a G Suite server

You can use an G Suite server for any Odoo hosting type. To do so you need to setup
the SMTP relay service. The configuration steps are explained in Google
documentation.
Be SPF-compliant
In case you use SPF (Sender Policy Framework) to increase the deliverability of your
outgoing emails, don’t forget to authorize Odoo as a sending host in your domain name
settings. Here is the configuration for Odoo Online:
● If no TXT record is set for SPF, create one with following definition: v=spf1
include:_spf.odoo.com ~all
● In case a SPF TXT record is already set, add “include:_spf.odoo.com”. e.g. for a
domain name that sends emails via Odoo Online and via G Suite it could be:
v=spf1 include:_spf.odoo.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
Find here the exact procedure to create or modify TXT records in your own domain
registrar.
Your new SPF record can take up to 48 hours to go into effect, but this usually happens
more quickly.
Note
Adding more than one SPF record for a domain can cause problems with mail delivery and spam
classification. Instead, we recommend using only one SPF record by modifying it to authorize Odoo.
Allow DKIM
You should do the same thing if DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is enabled on your
email server. In the case of Odoo Online & Odoo.sh, you should add a DNS

“odoo._domainkey” CNAME record to “odoo._domainkey.odoo.com”. For example, for
“foo.com” they should have a record “odoo._domainkey.foo.com” that is a CNAME with
the value “odoo._domainkey.odoo.com”.
Restriction
Please note that the port 25 is blocked for security reasons. Try using 587, 465 or 2525.
How to manage inbound messages

Odoo relies on generic email aliases to fetch incoming messages.
● Reply messages of messages sent from Odoo are routed to their original
discussion thread (and to the inbox of all its followers) by the catchall alias
(catchall@).
● Bounced messages are routed to bounce@ in order to track them in Odoo.
This is especially used in Odoo Email Marketing to opt-out invalid recipients.
● Original messages: Several business objects have their own alias to create new
records in Odoo from incoming emails:
○ Sales Channel (to create Leads or Opportunities in Odoo CRM),
○ Support Channel (to create Tickets in Odoo Helpdesk),
○ Projects (to create new Tasks in Odoo Project),
○ Job Positions (to create Applicants in Odoo Recruitment),
○ etc.
Depending on your mail server, there might be several methods to fetch emails. The
easiest and most recommended method is to manage one email address per Odoo
alias in your mail server.

● Create the corresponding email addresses in your mail server (catchall@,

bounce@, sales@, etc.).
● Set your domain name in the General Settings.
● If you use Odoo on-premise, create an Incoming Mail Server in Odoo for each
alias. You can do it from the General Settings as well. Fill out the form according
to your email provider’s settings. Leave the Actions to Perform on Incoming Mails
blank. Once all the information has been filled out, click on TEST & CONFIRM.
● If you use Odoo Online or Odoo.sh, We do recommend to redirect incoming

messages to Odoo’s domain name rather than exclusively use your own email
server. That way you will receive incoming messages without delay. Indeed,
Odoo Online is fetching incoming messages of external servers once per hour
only. You should set redirections for all the email addresses to Odoo’s domain
name in your email server (e.g. catchall@mydomain.ext to
catchall@mycompany.odoo.com).
Tip
All the aliases are customizable in Odoo.
Object aliases can be edited from their respective configuration view. To edit catchall and bounce
aliases, you first need to activate the Developer mode.

Then go to Settings ‣ Technical ‣ Parameters ‣ System Parameters to customize the aliases

(mail.catchall.alias & * mail.bounce.alias*).
Note
By default inbound messages are fetched every 5 minutes in Odoo on-premise. You can change this
value in Developer mode. Go to Settings ‣ Technical ‣ Automation ‣ Scheduled Actions and look for
Mail: Fetchmail Service.
Set up different dedicated servers for

transactional and mass mails
Odoo’s e-mail server has the capability of sending 200 e-mails per day on Odoo SH
Cloud Platform. However, if needed, you can use a separate Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
servers for transactional e-mails and mass mailings. Example: use Odoo’s own mail
server for transactional e-mails, and Sendgrid, Amazon SES, or Mailgun for mass
mailings. Another alternative is to use Postmark for transactional e-mails, and Amazon
SES or Sendgrid for mass mailings.
Note

A default outgoing email server is already configured. You should not create an alternative one
unless you want to use a specific external outgoing email server for technical reasons.
To do this, you should first enable the Developer mode and then go to Settings ‣
Technical ‣ Outgoing e-mail servers. There you have to create two e-mail MTA server
settings. One for transactional e-mails and one for mass mail servers. Be sure to mark
the priority of transactional e-mail servers as low as the mass email servers.
Now, go to Email Marketing ‣ Settings and enable Dedicated Server. With these
settings, Odoo uses the server with the lower priority for transactional emails, and the
server here selected for mass mails. Note that in this case, you have to set your
domain’s Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records to include both transactional and
mass mail servers. If your server resides with xxxx.odoo.com, the available options are
Sendinblue and Mailchimp, as your e-mails would be originated from the xxxx.odoo.com
domain.

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Discuss Module (Enterprise 14.

Get Started with Discuss

connected with colleagues and partners throughout applications. Forge better

relationships, increase productivity and transparency by promoting a convenient way of

Choose your notifications preference

choosing Handle in Odoo, they are shown in the Inbox.

Messages can then be Marked as Todo, Replied, or Marked as Read.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 1

Marked as Read are moved to History.

permission to receive desktop notifications to chats. If accepted, you receive push

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 2

send a Direct Message.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 3

You can also create public and private channels.

Mentions in the chat and on the Chatter

depending on his settings.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 4

names on Discuss’ sidebar and on the Messaging menu.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 5

● Efficiently Communicate Using Channels

● How to Use my Mail Server to Send and Receive Emails in Odoo

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 6

Efficiently Communicate Using Channels

everyone in the loop updated with the latest developments.

Public and Private channels

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 7

the Channel Settings icon on the sidebar.

Privacy and Members

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 8

to Discuss’ main page, select the channel and click on Invite.

as long as they are part of the group.

Use a channel as a mailing list

need to be approved before being sent.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 9

like them to receive an Automatic notification.

Mark Send guidelines to new subscribers to automatically send instructions to

Moderators can: Accept, Reject, Discard, Always Allow or Ban messages.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 10

moderated channel to auto-ban them from sending messages.

Quick search bar

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 11

or leave them from a single screen.

using the underscore character (_) to represent a single character.

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 12

● Get Started with Discuss

● Get Organized by Planning Activities

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 13

Get Organized by Planning Activities

Where do I see my schedule activities?

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 14

activity, or through Kanban views.

Set your activity types

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 15

Recommend next activities

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 16

are suggested to you.

● Get Started with Discuss

● Efficiently Communicate Using Channels

Copyright 2021 Rational Systems International Pte Ltd Page 17

How to Use my Mail Server to Send and Receive

If you are a user of Odoo Online or Odoo.sh…

Outgoing and incoming emails work out-of-the-box!

external mail server, simply enjoy your new Odoo database.