Regenerating Odoo assets when things go wrong

The problem

When working with Odoo, you may occasionally encounter issues with web assets becoming corrupted. This can manifest as missing styles, broken JavaScript functionality, or general UI problems that persist even after clearing your browser cache. These issues often occur after module updates or system changes.

The root cause is typically related to how Odoo bundles and caches CSS and JavaScript assets. When these get out of sync or corrupted, they need to be regenerated, but the Odoo interface might be too broken to use the built-in regeneration tools.

Solution overview

We'll solve this problem by:

Connecting directly to the PostgreSQL database
Locating and removing the corrupted asset records
Restarting the Odoo container to force asset regeneration

This approach bypasses the UI entirely, allowing you to fix the problem even when the interface is unusable.

Prerequisites

Access to the Docker environment running your Odoo instance
Basic familiarity with PostgreSQL commands
Terminal access to the server hosting Docker

Regenerating Odoo assets step by step

1. Connect to the PostgreSQL database

First, we need to identify and connect to the correct database. We'll use Docker commands to execute PostgreSQL client operations:

# Connect to the PostgreSQL container
docker exec -ti odoo_db_1 psql -d postgres -U odoo

# List available databases to find the correct one
docker exec odoo_db_1 psql -U odoo -l

This command will show output similar to:

                                         List of databases
   Name    | Owner | Encoding |  Collate   |   Ctype    | ICU Locale | Locale Provider | Access privileges
-----------+-------+----------+------------+------------+------------+-----------------+-------------------
 postgres  | odoo  | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            |
 template0 | odoo  | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/odoo          +
           |       |          |            |            |            |                 | odoo=CTc/odoo
 template1 | odoo  | UTF8     | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            | =c/odoo          +
           |       |          |            |            |            |                 | odoo=CTc/odoo
 test01    | odoo  | UTF8     | C          | en_US.utf8 |            | libc            |

Now switch to your Odoo database (in this example, it's "test01"):

postgres=# \c test01
You are now connected to database "test01" as user "odoo".

2. Identify asset records in the database

Odoo stores its web assets in the ir_attachment table. We need to find all the asset records:

test01=# select id, name from ir_attachment where res_model='ir.ui.view' and name like '%assets_%';

This query returns all asset-related attachments. You'll see an output listing all the CSS, JavaScript, and map files that make up Odoo's web interface.

Note

The SQL query uses the pattern `%assets_%` to match all asset files, including common assets, backend assets, and frontend assets. This ensures we capture all the files that need regeneration.

3. Delete all asset records

Now that we've identified the assets, we can delete them from the database:

test01=# delete from ir_attachment where res_model='ir.ui.view' and name like '%assets_%';
DELETE 45

The output shows how many records were deleted. In this example, 45 asset records were removed.

Warning

This operation removes all cached assets from the database. While this is safe to do, be aware that Odoo will need to regenerate all assets when it restarts, which might cause the first page load after restart to be slower than usual.

4. Restart the Odoo container

Exit from the PostgreSQL client by typing \q and press Enter. Then, restart your Odoo containers:

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d

This command stops all the containers defined in your docker-compose.yml file and then starts them again in detached mode.

5. Verify the fix

Now open your browser and navigate to your Odoo instance. The first load might take a bit longer as Odoo regenerates all the assets, but the interface should now display correctly with all styles and JavaScript functionality restored.

Troubleshooting

If you still experience issues after following these steps, consider:

Checking the Odoo logs for any errors during asset regeneration:
```
docker logs odoo_web_1
```
Clearing your browser cache completely
Verifying that all containers are running properly:
```
docker-compose ps
```

When to use this approach

This technique is particularly useful in the following scenarios:

After upgrading Odoo or installing new modules
When the Odoo interface becomes unusable due to CSS or JavaScript errors
When you see browser console errors related to missing assets
As a last resort when normal cache clearing doesn't resolve UI issues

Resources

Tip

Consider creating a shell script that combines these commands for quick execution when needed. This can be particularly helpful in development environments where asset issues might occur more frequently.