Hi,

active_id is a key inside the context dictionairy.  It is mainly used for "sidebar actions", in earlier versions of openerp these were found in the right sidebar, but now these have moved behind the "more" button in a form or list view.

Normally, active_id is automatically set by the UI.  When calling the API, you should behave more or less like the user interface does.  The "--log-response" command-line option for the server is very handy to see what the UI is doing.

Regards,

Jos