| Availability |
Odoo Online
Odoo.sh
On Premise
|
| Odoo Apps Dependencies |
•
Discuss (mail)
• Inventory (stock) • Invoicing (account) |
| Lines of code | 171 |
| Technical Name |
auto_follow_customer_messages |
| License | OPL-1 |
| Website | https://mnb.ltd |
| Versions | 17.0 18.0 19.0 |
| Availability |
Odoo Online
Odoo.sh
On Premise
|
| Odoo Apps Dependencies |
•
Discuss (mail)
• Inventory (stock) • Invoicing (account) |
| Lines of code | 171 |
| Technical Name |
auto_follow_customer_messages |
| License | OPL-1 |
| Website | https://mnb.ltd |
| Versions | 17.0 18.0 19.0 |
Auto-Follow on Messages
Automatically subscribe internal users when customers send messages on orders, invoices, or transfers.
The problem
When a customer replies to an order confirmation or sends a portal message on an invoice, the only people who see it are those already following that specific record. If the right person never followed the record, the message sits unread.
You can manually add followers, but customers do not wait for manual processes. A missed message on an open sales order can mean a delayed shipment, a complaint left unanswered, or a payment query that turns into a dispute.
An alternative to a default salesperson
The usual way to keep someone informed about an order is to set them as its salesperson. That works, but it also means they are notified about every message on every order they own. On a busy online B2C shop that is a constant stream of notifications, and most of them need no action. The signal that actually matters, a customer asking a question, gets buried.
This module takes the opposite approach. Nobody is subscribed in advance. A follower is added only when a customer actually sends a message on a document, so your team is alerted to the orders that need a person and stays quiet on the ones that do not. You get the coverage of a default salesperson without the notification spam.
And where a salesperson is a single person, a rule subscribes a whole group. If one person is away, the rest of the team still sees the customer's message, so nothing waits on a single inbox.
What this module does
Rule-based configuration
Define rules that say which models to watch (Sale Orders, Invoices, Transfers, or any mail.thread model) and which groups to subscribe. No per-record setup required.
Automatic subscription
When an external user sends a message or portal note on a matching record, all members of the configured groups are added as followers before Odoo dispatches notifications. They receive the message immediately.
Audit logging
Every auto-follow action is written to Settings > Technical > Logging, so you can see exactly which followers were added, when, and to which record.
The full workflow
The user flow: what it does differently
1. A sale order has no salesperson assigned. A customer posts a message on it, and it lands on the order's chatter like any portal reply.
2. The module has already subscribed the configured group's internal users as followers, in time to receive that first message, even with no salesperson set. Standard Odoo would leave it to whoever already follows the record.
The configuration flow, no code
1. Auto-Follow Rules live under Settings > Technical > Discuss > Auto-Follow Rules.
2. A rule says which models to watch (Sale Orders, Invoices, Transfers, or any mail.thread model) and which groups to subscribe. No per-record setup.
3. Group membership is the single source of truth: add or remove internal users in the recipients group and the behaviour follows, with no per-record fiddling.
How it works
The module extends mail.message. When a message is created, it checks
whether the author is an external (non-internal) user and whether the record's model
matches any active rule. If it does, the group members are subscribed via
message_subscribe before the notification is dispatched.
Only new followers are added: users already following the record are not touched. Internal authors (employees) do not trigger the rule, so internal notes do not cause spurious subscriptions.
Configuration
- Install the module. A default rule is already set up for Sales Orders, Invoices and Transfers, so it works out of the box.
- Open the Auto-Follow Recipients group and add the internal users who should be notified. That is all most setups need.
- For finer control, create your own rules under Settings > Technical > Auto-Follow Rules and point them at your own groups.
- Check Settings > Technical > Logging to verify the rule is firing as expected.
Compatibility
Depends on mail, sale, account, and stock (all standard Odoo modules). Tested on Odoo 17.0, 18.0, and 19.0. Works with Community and Enterprise editions.
The module uses standard Odoo ORM inheritance and does not patch any core methods
in a way that would conflict with other modules extending mail.message.
Published by Mettle & Byte Ltd. For support, contact the address listed on this page.
Odoo Proprietary License v1.0 This software and associated files (the "Software") may only be used (executed, modified, executed after modifications) if you have purchased a valid license from the authors, typically via Odoo Apps, or if you have received a written agreement from the authors of the Software (see the COPYRIGHT file). You may develop Odoo modules that use the Software as a library (typically by depending on it, importing it and using its resources), but without copying any source code or material from the Software. You may distribute those modules under the license of your choice, provided that this license is compatible with the terms of the Odoo Proprietary License (For example: LGPL, MIT, or proprietary licenses similar to this one). It is forbidden to publish, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Software or modified copies of the Software. The above copyright notice and this permission notice must be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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