Product images with Google Images

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Introduction

Having high-quality, relevant product images is essential for improving user experience and boosting sales in any e-commerce or inventory system. In Odoo, assigning product images manually can become a time-consuming task—especially for businesses managing a large catalog. Fortunately, by integrating the Google Custom Search API with your Odoo database, you can automate the process of finding and assigning product images efficiently, based on product barcodes.

Why Use Google Images in Odoo?

Product images serve multiple functions:

Improve customer trust and decision-making
Simplify internal inventory management
Enhance presentation in sales, inventory, and eCommerce apps

But when managing hundreds (or thousands) of products, manually uploading images becomes tedious. Google Images integration in Odoo allows automatic image retrieval, drastically reducing manual work.

Configuration Steps

1. Google Cloud Platform Setup

Create API Credentials

Visit the Google Cloud Platform – API & Services page.
Log in with your Google account and agree to the Terms of Service.
Create a new API project by naming it and selecting a location (optional).
Go to Credentials > Create Credentials > API Key.
Copy and save the generated API key for later use.

Note: Free Google accounts support up to 100 image queries per day. For more, a billing upgrade is required.

Enable Custom Search API

Use the search bar on Google Cloud Platform to find Custom Search API.
Click on it, then hit Enable.

2. Google Programmable Search Engine Setup

Navigate to Google Programmable Search Engine and click Get Started.

On the creation form:
1. Enter the name of your search engine.
2. Define what you want it to search (e.g., “google.com”).

Enable both Image Search and SafeSearch.

Click Create to finish setup.
On the confirmation page, click Customize.

Under the Overview ‣ Basic section, copy your Search Engine ID.

3. Odoo Configuration

In your Odoo database, go to the Settings
Scroll to the Integrations section and enable the Google Images feature by checking the box.
Click Save.
Enter your previously saved API Key and Search Engine ID in the respective fields.
Click Save again to complete the configuration.

Using Google Images to Assign Product Photos

Once everything is set up, adding product images becomes simple and efficient. Here’s how to do it within the Odoo Sales application:

Step-by-Step Guide

Navigate to:
1. Sales app > Products > Products, or
2. Sales app > Products > Product Variants
Open the product (or variant) that needs an image.

Note: Only products that have a barcode but no image will be processed. For products with variants, only eligible variants are considered.

Click the Action icon on the product page.
Select Get Pictures from Google Images from the dropdown menu.
In the popup window, click Get Pictures.

Odoo will then begin fetching images from Google:

The first 10 images are fetched immediately.
Additional images (beyond 10) are retrieved as a background job.

Note: The background job can process about 100 images per minute. If the Google quota is reached (based on your API plan), the job pauses for 24 hours and resumes the next day.

Conclusion

Integrating Google Images via the Custom Search API into your Odoo workflow transforms a once tedious task into a streamlined process. This feature not only saves valuable time but also ensures that your product listings are visually rich and up-to-date. Whether you’re managing inventory or enhancing your online store, automating product image assignment with Google is a smart, scalable solution.

Product images with Google Images

Introduction