Looker Connect Training

Help Center

Documentation

Community

Cloud Certifications

Technical Tips & Tricks

Previously internal product knowledge now available for you to explore!

  • 1,744 Topics
  • 371 Replies

1744 Topics

ryan.dunlavy
Looker Staff
ryan.dunlavyLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I download metadata about a visualizations configuration?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 24, 2018 You can Command+Shift+click on the gear menu for the visualization to download a .json file with the visualization settings metadata for a particular visualization. This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
ryan.dunlavy
Looker Staff
1 year ago
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
jamesnestlerLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

No clickable links in visualizations (link parameter)Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 12, 2019 One potential reason for this could be if we're trying to use both a link AND html parameter. For example the following won't work:measure: broken_link {type: counthtml: <insert some cool html formatting here>link: {label: "It's broken"url: "tryingtolinkout_butitsbroken.com"}}  This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
1 year ago
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
kevin.dunnLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is an 'ephemeral' session credential?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 5, 2021When chromium needs to render content, it is given a one-time 'ephemeral' login, and that is what these session credentials are from. This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

List of visualization options no longer available in Enhanced VisualizationsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: July 2019  The following visualization options are no longer available in Enhanced Visualizations (Looker 6.0): Plot - Series Order (this can also be missing if Stacked or Stacked Percentage is not selected) Plot - Focus Lines on Hover Values - Value Density X - Time Tick Count X - Padding Left X - Padding Right The features were removed because they were originally introduced as workarounds for bad chart defaults.Keep in mind that the old visualizations are deprecated starting in Looker 6.0, so users will no longer have these options available by default. This content is subject to limited support.                

280
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can you make a multi-column index for a PDT?Knowledge Drop

Last tested; Oct 17, 2017 Right now that's not possible natively.One thing you can do is concat two columns and use that as the index, but this will only be used if both of those columns are included in the query.indexes: [col1, col2] makes two separate indexes on the DT. This content is subject to limited support.                   

280
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Turning off Group to Role Mapping on SAML / LDAPKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 6, 2020 If you turn off group to role mapping but continue to use SAML / LDAP as your auth method, you may run in to an issue with permissions due to shadow groups persisting after this option is turned off. If you're lowering permissions for some users, they may still have the elevated permissions due to the shadow groups.You can turn back on group to role mapping with lower permissions to ensure that users don't get permissions you don't intend (though make sure you've turned on alternate login for specified users so Admins don't lose privileges and get locked out!) This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Alias in filter suggestionsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 30, 2020 If you're using an ID, you may want to use a more human-friendly suggestion for that ID for users to select.Unfortunately, we currently can't alias filter suggestions without parametersBut as a workaround, you might suggest creating a concatenated field that uses the human-friendly field you want to suggest and the ID, and then uses a contains clause in the filter instead of = This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Kento_Tomine
Community Admin
Kento_TomineCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we hide schema in SQL Runner?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 20, 2021No, but here's a feature request to +1: https://portal.feedback.us.pendo.io/app/#/case/34511?section=requests This content is subject to limited support.                   

280
Kento_Tomine
Community Admin
1 year ago
kenelly.almeida
Looker Staff
kenelly.almeidaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does the access_filter get extended when I extend an explore?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 8, 2020 Yes. We don't need to setup the access filter again, once the access filter from the original explore is also considered on the extended one.Considering the explore Users below, which contains an access filter on the field users.state:explore: users {view_name: usersaccess_filter: {field: users.stateuser_attribute: state_ext} We have are extending this explore as a User Ext explore and not defining the access filter:explore: users_ext {extends: [users]} The state_ext user attribute contains the Alabama value for a specific user, and both explores User and User Ext contains the user-specific data restriction applied. This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
kenelly.almeida
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

"This filter contains an error and won't be included in the query"Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 14, 2018 This warning message comes up when there is a character mismatch between the field being filtered and the values that are entered in it, like so:One "gotcha" can be if the values were copied and pasted from another place like gmail -- there could be some weird character formatting in that carries over even if you can't see it visually. Verify that you're using a plain text editor or csv to source the values you paste in. This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

MySQL and groupingKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 25, 2019 The ProblemIn MySQL, you can write a measure which applies arithmetic between a measure and dimension.measure: bad_measure {type: numbersql: ${measure} * ${dimension} ;;} In Redshift (and most other databases), the same measure throws an error: ERROR: column must appear in the GROUP BY clause or be used in an aggregate function . Why isn't every dialect as cool as MySQL?The ReasoningMySQL is not the cool one here. MySQL makes some really weird assumptions about grouping. Take for example this query which selects all the "years" in my video game database. Year isn't a primary key, and we aren't grouping by year, so we see several duplicates. This seems expected.The problem arises when we also select a COUNT(*) without any grouping. As expected, in this query we get back one row with the full count of records. But we also see the "year" here as well, with a random value chosen. Most databases would have errored here instead of showing us a year.While this may se

270
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are my timestamps being converted twice? / Multiple timezone conversionKnowledge Drop

Last tested; May 31, 2018 You're most likely seeing this because we're referencing a date/time field inside another date/time field. For example, say we have the following:dimension_group: created {type: timetimeframes:[date, year, month, quarter, raw]sql: ${TABLE}.created_at ;;} dimension: bad_date {type: date_timesql: date_add(${created_date},1) ;;} If we select the bad_date dimension, we will see multiple timezone conversions applied in the SQL.Instead, we should use the _raw timeframe like so: dimension: good_date {type: date_timesql: date_add(${created_raw},1) ;;} Which correctly generates only one conversion: This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
nathaniel.thompson
Moderator
nathaniel.thompsonModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Who can save in Project Settings?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 1, 2019 Only users with the manage_models permission can save project settings. Some other users (e.g. those with the Develop permission) can see the project settings page, but are unable to save any changes on the page. However, only deploy is required to reset the git connection. This content is subject to limited support.                 

270
nathaniel.thompson
Moderator
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I track slack actions in system activity?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 21, 2020 Yes! With the event attribute explore.Sample URL to share:/explore/system__activity/event_attribute?fields=event.created_time,user.name,event.name,event.category,event_attribute.name,event_attribute.value&f[event.name]=%25slack%25&sorts=event.created_time+desc&limit=500&query_timezone=America%2FLos_Angeles&vis=%7B%7D&filter_config=%7B%22event.name%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22contains%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B%22constant%22%3A%22slack%22%7D%2C%7B%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A2%2C%22error%22%3Afalse%7D%5D%7D&dynamic_fields=%5B%5D&origin=share-expanded This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Looker specific reserved wordsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 27, 2020 Scenario:We run the LookML validator and see a this error:a dimension/measure named 'yes' or 'no' or a reserved keyword Reasoning:Reserved words are words that programs have explicitly state to have fixed meaning and can't be redefined. In this case, Looker has reserved the words yes and no, therefore when defining them as dimensions, you'll get this validation error.  This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I have my string table calculation to the right of my measures?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Sep 6, 2019 ProblemBy default, dimensions will always appear to the left of measures in tables-legacy. Even if we use a table calculation to reference the dimension, i.e. ${dimension_name}, the table calc will appear to the left of the measure.SolutionThe Table-next visualization type is the real supported solution here, as it allows columns to be dragged anywhere.WorkaroundWithout using table-next, the key is to include a measure in your table calculation so that the calculation is treated as a measure rather than a dimension.One way to accomplish this is by using an if function in a table calc. We could do: if(length(${dimension_name}) + ${measure} >= 0, ${dimension_name}, ${dimension_name})We're using the if statement so that we can include a measure in the calculation. Keep in mind that it also doesn't really matter if the condition in the if statement is true or false, since it will always return our string dimension.  This content is subject to limited support.   

270
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
jon.allen
Looker Staff
jon.allenLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What happens when a node in a cluster fails?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 10, 2020 Do the other nodes recognize the failed node?Indirectly, yes -- The node's aren't keeping an eye on each other directly (they aren't pinging each other) but the scheduling engine recognizes the node failure based on the internal db's node heartbeat table and will restart/redistribute the schedule jobs accordingly.When one of the looker node fails, do the active looker nodes start accepting requests that were sent to the failed node?The load balancer will stop sending front-end requests to the failed node when it fails to receive a response. The scheduler will pick up on work that has failed due to a node disappearing, and restart that work on an active node. This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
jon.allen
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Is there a way to extend the expires_at for the authorization token to be beyond 1 hour?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 30, 2017 No, there is not a way to extend this beyond 1 hour.Instead, you should code your app to check for expiration of the access_token before each API call. This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What column compression encodings are used for PDTs in Redshift?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 12, 2019 Since we use "CREATE TABLE AS" for our PDTs, these Redshift rules apply.TLDR:Redshift automatically analyzes the tables and determines what it thinks is the best compression per column. We build PDT using CTAS (create table as select), and Redshift does not support specifying compression as part of the CTAS statement This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I drill down on a drill down?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 Yep! As long as the fields have drill_fields defined, you can continue drilling on the drill modal to infinity and beyond (the drill modal will reload upon each consecutive drill). This content is subject to limited support.                

260
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Which datagroups show up in the scheduling options?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 12, 2018 All of the datagroups defined in the models included in the given look/dashboard will appear as scheduling options. They do not have to be persisted with the explores/PDTs in order to set up a schedule with them.But you still need develop permission on the model in order to see any of them (post on that here) This content is subject to limited support.                  

260
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Is there a character limit for content in the Admin Content Sidebar?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 29, 2019 Yes! 255 for the title and 255 for the body. This content is subject to limited support.                  

260
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why do I only sometimes need substitution operators?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 4, 2018 The difference is that ${foo} refers to the value in the field, whereas foo refers to the field itself. So when performing math or string operations, we'd use ${} like so: dimension: do_math {type: numbersql: ${foo} - ${bar} ;;}because we want the values of foo and bar to be pulled in and operated on. We do not use ${} when we are referencing the field itself, for example in drill_fields or order_by_field where we are not describing the relationship between the values, but just a relationship between the fields. So we do:measure: sum_something {type: sumsql: ${something} ;;# use ${} since we want the values to be summeddrill_fields: [foo, bar, baz]# no ${} since we don't care about the# values, only that these are the fields to use} This content is subject to limited support.                 

260
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Lan
Looker Staff
LanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we use created_hour (and other dimension group timeframe) to drill to a dashboard?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 7, 2020 The answer is YES, but because the filter value in Looker only designs to display "is on the date" or "is in the year" so part of the value will be cut offThe workaround is to convert the dimension timeframe to string and use it as a filter instead This content is subject to limited support.                   

260
Lan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I update/reset my git repository through the API?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Nov 26, 2019Yes, using the update_project endpoint, but you must be in Development mode!Note: If configuring a bare repo using the API, docs may say Call update_project setting git_remote_url to nil...But in that case the call to update_project should actually set git_remote_url=null This content is subject to limited support.                  

260
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago

Badges

  • Friendly Face
    sbrylowskihas earned the badge Friendly Face
  • Helpful
    carriehas earned the badge Helpful
  • Community Star
    carriehas earned the badge Community Star
  • Friendly Face
    carriehas earned the badge Friendly Face
  • Community Star
    Dawidhas earned the badge Community Star
Show all badges
Terms of Service