N2 Development

[yonitjio]

Hey everyone 👋

It seems like N2 hasn’t been getting much interest or engagement lately.
Before deciding whether to make it private or archive it, I’d like to get community input.

[yonitjio]

Background

This project is a fairly complex one — a visual drag‑and‑drop automation tool for Odoo — which requires significant time, effort, and resources. Although it is currently focused on the educational aspects (making it available for people to learn about creating node‑based UIs for Odoo), I’m really passionate about it. At the same time, we need to be realistic: if there isn’t significant community interest right now, sharing it publicly may not be the best approach.

Keeping development private allows me to focus on building it properly, step by step, and eventually make it available commercially to help support ongoing development.

For context: here are some real‑world benchmarks of similar tools:

• n8n: Plans start at ~ €20/month for 2.5 K workflow executions. (n8n.io)
• React Flow: Offers a commercial “Pro” subscription for node‑based UI development and advanced support. (reactflow.dev/pro)
• JointJS+: Per‑developer perpetual license at ~ US$2,990 for unlimited commercial use. (jointjs.com)

While this project is currently educational and niche, the techniques used — building node‑based UIs, visual drag‑and‑drop automation — are broadly applicable and have real commercial potential, though development requires significant commitment.

So at the very least, the project can serve as a learning resource for automation and node‑based UI development. That is the very reason the project was initiated publicly in the first place.

I really appreciate your thoughts and feedback — whether you think a public approach makes sense now, or it’s better to keep this private for the moment so it can be developed properly.

[yonitjio]

Native (N2 inside Odoo) vs External System

Feature / Aspect	N2 (Internal)	External System (n8n, Zapier, Node-RED, etc.)
Integration depth	Full native access to Odoo ORM, models, views, and security rules	Requires API calls (Odoo REST/JSON-RPC); may miss internal triggers or security nuances
Performance	Runs directly in Odoo, can leverage server actions and scheduled jobs	Depends on network, API limits, and external server performance
Security	Uses Odoo’s user roles, ACLs, record rules; no extra layer	Security must be handled externally; API keys, tokens, and access control needed
Customization	Fully extensible; can create nodes that act on any Odoo model or field	Limited to what the external API exposes; deep ORM manipulations harder
Ease of deployment	Just install module; no extra infrastructure	Requires separate system deployment, hosting, authentication
Real-time events	Triggers can be bound to record events (create/write/delete)	Webhooks can achieve similar, but may have latency and retry limitations
User experience	Single UI inside Odoo; users don’t leave platform	Users must switch platforms; might require additional training
AI/Advanced features	Can leverage AI module to auto-generate flows based on context	External AI integration possible, but disconnected from Odoo’s context
Cost	Free (community-driven) + Odoo server	SaaS pricing or hosting costs for external system
Scalability / Extensibility	Scales with Odoo server; can build custom nodes for any model	Depends on external platform; may have rate limits or node restrictions
Observability / Debugging	Logs and execution context are inside Odoo; easier to trace	Must monitor logs in separate system; harder to debug across platforms