diff --git a/openerp-server b/openerp-server
index 2698307ff42..dbae1c31884 100755
--- a/openerp-server
+++ b/openerp-server
@@ -252,6 +252,11 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         import_translation()
         sys.exit(0)
 
+    if not config["stop_after_init"]:
+        # Some module register themselves when they are loaded so we need the
+        # services to be running before loading any registry.
+        start_services()
+
     if config['db_name']:
         for dbname in config['db_name'].split(','):
             preload_registry(dbname)
@@ -261,7 +266,6 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
 
     setup_pid_file()
     setup_signal_handlers()
-    start_services()
     logger = logging.getLogger('server')
     logger.info('OpenERP server is running, waiting for connections...')
     quit_on_signals()
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir.xml b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir.xml
index 3ab0bb3f167..045fed2e2a0 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir.xml
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir.xml
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@
             <field name="view_id" ref="sequence_view_tree"/>
             <field name="context">{'active_test': False}</field>
         </record>
-        <menuitem id="next_id_5" name="Sequences" parent="base.menu_config"/>
+        <menuitem id="next_id_5" name="Sequences &amp; Identifiers" parent="base.menu_config"/>
         <menuitem action="ir_sequence_form" id="menu_ir_sequence_form" parent="next_id_5"/>
 
         <!-- Sequences Types -->
@@ -1198,7 +1198,7 @@
             <field name="model">ir.model.data</field>
             <field name="type">form</field>
             <field name="arch" type="xml">
-                <form string="Object Identifiers">
+                <form string="External Identifiers">
                     <field name="name"/>
                     <field name="module"/>
                     <field name="model"/>
@@ -1216,7 +1216,7 @@
             <field name="model">ir.model.data</field>
             <field name="type">tree</field>
             <field name="arch" type="xml">
-                <tree string="Object Identifiers">
+                <tree string="External Identifiers">
                     <field name="module"/>
                     <field name="name"/>
                     <field name="model"/>
@@ -1230,7 +1230,7 @@
             <field name="model">ir.model.data</field>
             <field name="type">search</field>
             <field name="arch" type="xml">
-                <search string="Object Identifiers">
+                <search string="External Identifiers">
                     <filter icon="terp-camera_test"
                         string="Updatable"
                         domain="[('noupdate', '=', False)]"/>
@@ -1270,7 +1270,7 @@
         <menuitem action="action_model_fields" id="ir_model_model_fields" parent="base.next_id_9"/>
 
         <record id="action_model_data" model="ir.actions.act_window">
-            <field name="name">Object Identifiers</field>
+            <field name="name">External Identifiers</field>
             <field name="res_model">ir.model.data</field>
             <field name="view_type">form</field>
             <field name="view_id" ref="view_model_data_list"/>
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_model.py b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_model.py
index a9d2a21b7a5..1ae54af0cb9 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_model.py
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_model.py
@@ -561,14 +561,27 @@ class ir_model_access(osv.osv):
 ir_model_access()
 
 class ir_model_data(osv.osv):
+    """Holds external identifier keys for records in the database.
+       This has two main uses:
+
+           * allows easy data integration with third-party systems,
+             making import/export/sync of data possible, as records
+             can be uniquely identified across multiple systems
+           * allows tracking the origin of data installed by OpenERP
+             modules themselves, thus making it possible to later
+             update them seamlessly.
+    """
     _name = 'ir.model.data'
     __logger = logging.getLogger('addons.base.'+_name)
     _order = 'module,model,name'
     _columns = {
-        'name': fields.char('XML Identifier', required=True, size=128, select=1),
-        'model': fields.char('Object', required=True, size=64, select=1),
+        'name': fields.char('External Identifier', required=True, size=128, select=1,
+                            help="External Key/Identifier that can be used for "
+                                 "data integration with third-party systems"),
+        'model': fields.char('Model Name', required=True, size=64, select=1),
         'module': fields.char('Module', required=True, size=64, select=1),
-        'res_id': fields.integer('Resource ID', select=1),
+        'res_id': fields.integer('Record ID', select=1,
+                                 help="ID of the target record in the database"),
         'noupdate': fields.boolean('Non Updatable'),
         'date_update': fields.datetime('Update Date'),
         'date_init': fields.datetime('Init Date')
@@ -580,7 +593,7 @@ class ir_model_data(osv.osv):
         'module': ''
     }
     _sql_constraints = [
-        ('module_name_uniq', 'unique(name, module)', 'You cannot have multiple records with the same id for the same module !'),
+        ('module_name_uniq', 'unique(name, module)', 'You cannot have multiple records with the same external ID in the same module!'),
     ]
 
     def __init__(self, pool, cr):
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_translation.py b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_translation.py
index 940909b0d71..813ab514b0f 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_translation.py
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_translation.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ class ir_translation(osv.osv):
         # These two columns map to ir_model_data.module and ir_model_data.name.
         # They are used to resolve the res_id above after loading is done.
         'module': fields.char('Module', size=64, help='Maps to the ir_model_data for which this translation is provided.'),
-        'xml_id': fields.char('XML Id', size=128, help='Maps to the ir_model_data for which this translation is provided.'),
+        'xml_id': fields.char('External ID', size=128, help='Maps to the ir_model_data for which this translation is provided.'),
     }
 
     def _auto_init(self, cr, context={}):
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_ui_view.py b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_ui_view.py
index 56f7ae76519..90990834c9b 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_ui_view.py
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/ir/ir_ui_view.py
@@ -73,11 +73,12 @@ class view(osv.osv):
             ('calendar', 'Calendar'),
             ('diagram','Diagram'),
             ('gantt', 'Gantt'),
+            ('kanban', 'Kanban'),
             ('search','Search')), 'View Type', required=True, select=True),
         'arch': fields.text('View Architecture', required=True),
         'inherit_id': fields.many2one('ir.ui.view', 'Inherited View', ondelete='cascade', select=True),
         'field_parent': fields.char('Child Field',size=64),
-        'xml_id': fields.function(osv.osv.get_xml_id, type='char', size=128, string="XML ID",
+        'xml_id': fields.function(osv.osv.get_xml_id, type='char', size=128, string="External ID",
                                   method=True, help="ID of the view defined in xml file"),
     }
     _defaults = {
diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/rng/view.rng b/openerp/addons/base/rng/view.rng
index b641330b7ba..3cad1a9a369 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/rng/view.rng
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/rng/view.rng
@@ -111,6 +111,19 @@
         </rng:element>
     </rng:define>
 
+    <rng:define name="kanban">
+        <rng:element name="kanban">
+            <rng:zeroOrMore>
+                <rng:ref name="field"/>
+            </rng:zeroOrMore>
+            <rng:element name="templates">
+                <rng:oneOrMore>
+                    <rng:ref name="any"/>
+                </rng:oneOrMore>
+            </rng:element>
+        </rng:element>
+    </rng:define>
+
     <rng:define name="tree">
         <rng:element name="tree">
             <rng:ref name="overload"/>
@@ -460,6 +473,7 @@
             <rng:zeroOrMore>
                 <rng:choice>
                     <rng:ref name="diagram"/>
+                    <rng:ref name="kanban"/>
                     <rng:ref name="form"/>
                     <rng:ref name="data"/>
                     <rng:ref name="tree"/>
@@ -618,6 +632,7 @@
     <rng:start>
         <rng:choice>
             <rng:ref name="diagram" />
+            <rng:ref name="kanban" />
             <rng:ref name="form" />
             <rng:ref name="search" />
             <rng:ref name="group" />
diff --git a/openerp/osv/fields.py b/openerp/osv/fields.py
index fb973d2e521..7a8f460f5cb 100644
--- a/openerp/osv/fields.py
+++ b/openerp/osv/fields.py
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@
         * size
 """
 
+import base64
 import datetime as DT
+import re
 import string
 import sys
 import warnings
@@ -727,34 +729,41 @@ def get_nice_size(value):
         size = len(value)
     return tools.human_size(size)
 
+# See http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#NT-Char
+# and http://bugs.python.org/issue10066
+invalid_xml_low_bytes = re.compile(r'[\x00-\x08\x0b-\x0c\x0e-\x1f]')
+
 def sanitize_binary_value(value):
     # binary fields should be 7-bit ASCII base64-encoded data,
     # but we do additional sanity checks to make sure the values
-    # are not something else that won't pass via xmlrpc
+    # are not something else that won't pass via XML-RPC
     if isinstance(value, (xmlrpclib.Binary, tuple, list, dict)):
         # these builtin types are meant to pass untouched
         return value
 
-    # For all other cases, handle the value as a binary string:
-    # it could be a 7-bit ASCII string (e.g base64 data), but also
-    # any 8-bit content from files, with byte values that cannot
-    # be passed inside XML!
-    # See for more info:
+    # Handle invalid bytes values that will cause problems
+    # for XML-RPC. See for more info:
     #  - http://bugs.python.org/issue10066
     #  - http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#NT-Char
-    #
-    # One solution is to convert the byte-string to unicode,
-    # so it gets serialized as utf-8 encoded data (always valid XML)
-    # If invalid XML byte values were present, tools.ustr() uses
-    # the Latin-1 codec as fallback, which converts any 8-bit
-    # byte value, resulting in valid utf-8-encoded bytes
-    # in the end:
-    #  >>> unicode('\xe1','latin1').encode('utf8') == '\xc3\xa1'
-    # Note: when this happens, decoding on the other endpoint
-    # is not likely to produce the expected output, but this is
-    # just a safety mechanism (in these cases base64 data or
-    # xmlrpc.Binary values should be used instead)
-    return tools.ustr(value)
+
+    # Coercing to unicode would normally allow it to properly pass via
+    # XML-RPC, transparently encoded as UTF-8 by xmlrpclib.
+    # (this works for _any_ byte values, thanks to the fallback
+    #  to latin-1 passthrough encoding when decoding to unicode)
+    value = tools.ustr(value)
+
+    # Due to Python bug #10066 this could still yield invalid XML
+    # bytes, specifically in the low byte range, that will crash
+    # the decoding side: [\x00-\x08\x0b-\x0c\x0e-\x1f]
+    # So check for low bytes values, and if any, perform
+    # base64 encoding - not very smart or useful, but this is
+    # our last resort to avoid crashing the request.
+    if invalid_xml_low_bytes.search(value):
+        # b64-encode after restoring the pure bytes with latin-1
+        # passthrough encoding
+        value = base64.b64encode(value.encode('latin-1'))
+
+    return value
 
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------