Comment 6 for bug 950948

Hello Yannick,

The support for database ID has been hidden in the web client because it was confusing users, being shown next to the external ID ("openerp ID" as you call it, e.g. base.res_partner_agrolait). It is also not portable across databases, and therefore not recommended.
It was useful for performing local batch updates, but in fact OpenERP 6.1 comes with a feature that makes it unnecessary: when you export the regular "id" field, a new external ID is created on the fly for records that do not have one. So when you want to do a batch local update, just export the records to update as CSV, being sure to include the "id" column, and you will be able to reimport it back after modification, without creating duplicate records.
Basically we do not want to expose database IDs via CSV anymore, as they can be replaced by equivalent external IDs without any loss of functionality.

I think this provides a workable solution for everyone, while making the interface less confusing due to the presence of multiple ID fields with different semantics.
As for the GTK client, usability is not one of our priorities for it, so it was simply not updated to hide the database ID field.

I'm going to change the status of this bug to "Won't Fix", as we really would like to avoid re-introducing this technical (and now basically useless) field in the UI. Do not hesitate to reply if you think the external ID alternative will not work for you.