Most Odoo module definitions, such as user interfaces and security rules, are actually data records stored in specific database tables. The XML and CSV files found in modules are not used by Odoo applications at runtime. They are instead a means to load those definitions into the database tables.
Because of this, an important part of Odoo modules is about representing (serializing) that data using files so that can be later loaded into a database.
Modules can also have default and demonstration data. Data representation allows adding that to our modules. Additionally, understanding Odoo data representation formats is important in order to export and import business data in the context of a project implementation.
Before we go into practical cases, we will first explore the external identifier concept, which is the key to Odoo data representation.