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Technical Tips & Tricks

Previously internal product knowledge now available for you to explore!

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Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to grant access to content in a personal folderKnowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 21, 2019 All users have "Manage Access, Edit" permissions on their personal folder, so they can give / remove access as they choose.In an open system, personal folders are viewable by all users by default. An individual user can "manage access" on their personal folder to remove this access or modify it.In a closed system, all personal folders are hidden from other users by defualt. A user can "manage access" on their personal folder to give access or modify it.In both cases, the user viewing the folder needs to have the appropriate permissions and model permissions to view the content. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When do setup email links and password reset links expire?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Mar 7, 2021 Normal setup tokens don't expire.Reset tokens issued for users who already have passwords expire after 1 hour. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does changing a user's groups in SAML/LDAP affect their Looker user?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 21, 2019 This depends on whether you have Group to Role Mapping enabled in Looker:If so, then the changes will affect the user, but only upon their next login. When a user logs in, Looker removes all of their roles and assigns new roles based on SAML/LDAP groups.If not, then changes made on the external authentication system won't affect Looker at all.This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does the `html:` parameter override all other formatting?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: May 13, 2020 By default, html will override other formatting defined in `value_format`.If you use {{value}} to reference the field value, then the value will be brought through as shown in SQL, so SQL-level formatting will still apply.If you use {{rendered_value}} to reference the field value, then value formats will still apply.NOTE: HTML parameter will not override the visualization setting formats. The visualization setting formats are the last to be applied. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Git Connection Attempt Times OutKnowledge Drop

Last Tested: Oct 27, 2020 The Git Connection Test should be your first test when a Git connection goes wrong.At AnytimeIf the connection seems to be timing out, if you host your own Looker instance, there is most likely a network layer between your Looker and Git service. Check if you have proxies or load balancers in front of your Looker instance that may have short timeouts or are not allowing traffic out to the Git server.If you are connecting with SSH, you can test SSH'ing to you git service from the command line of the Looker server. Here host.git.com is your SSH URL. You might need to include the path to the deploy key as in the second command.ssh -v host.git.comssh -v -i ~/file/to/deploy_key host.looker.comSetting up via SSH Deploy KeysIf you are using GitHub Enterprise, SSH authentication may be blocked. You can test if port 22 (SSH) allows incoming traffic using the following process from GitHub. https://help.github.com/en/enterprise/2.18/user/articles/testing-your-ssh-connect

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why do I have an extra join in my generated SQL?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 Generally speaking, Looker only write in a join to a table when needed. You can force joins to appear using required_joins.Looker only adds a join to generated SQL when a user selects a field requiring that join on the Explore page. This also goes for fields that are forced to be in the query, such as with sql_always_where, sql_where, or liquid references of fields from other views.Also, if a part of the sql_on in the join is commented out as a SQL comment (using dashes --) rather than a LookML comment (using number sign #), that part of the join will still be included in the generated SQL. Looker will pull in other joins to make sure those field references are valid, despite the fact that they're in a SQL comment. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to connect a new LookML Project to a non-empty Git repoKnowledge Drop

Last Tested: Sep 14, 2020 Create the new LookML project under Develop > Manage Projects Choose "Blank Project" and give it a name The next page will ask you to "configure git" Enter your repo URL when prompted, and enter the deploy key on the repo After configuration, Looker will prompt you to push your local branch, pull down remote changes, and finally push to production! This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Looker Password Restrictions and FAQKnowledge Drop

Last Tested: Aug 15, 2020As of Looker 7.10, the requirements for Looker passwords are written down in Docs.After 5 failed attempts you will be locked out for 5 minutes. As of 6.20, the Login Lockouts admin page (/admin/lockouts) enables admins to unlock a user before the lockout period expires.To get more control, consider connecting Looker to your external authentication system (eg SAML, LDAP). FAQs1. Does my Looker password expire?A: No, Looker passwords do not expire after a certain number of days (they are not rotating passwords). 2. Is there a restriction on Password Reuse?A: The only rule is that the new password must be different than the previous one. However, it could be the same with the one used before the previous one. 3. Can passwords contain Personal Identifiable Information (PII) Content?A: It is not recommended to use PII in passwords. However, Looker does not check or prevent passwords with PII. 4. Is there a minimum time between Password Changes?A: There is no minimu

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is an SSH Deploy Key?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 14, 2020 If you are connecting to your git repository using SSH protocol, Looker requires an SSH deploy key to authenticate requests to the remote git repository to do things like push, pull, commit, etc. It's part of hooking Git up to Looker if you're using an SSH connection. This doc explains how to use it when setting up a Git repository with Looker using SSH.The public key is just a text file, and it's what Looker shows you when setting up the Git connection. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why am I seeing multiples of the same query running simultaneously?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 11, 2020 If you run a query, and then run a query with identical SQL, then Looker pulls the results from cache.If you run two queries at the same time with identical SQL, Looker realizes this and consolidates them into one request to your database. You may notice both queries appear to be "running" in the Looker UI but only one will hit the database.One common example is if you have the same query on a dashboard but with different visualization types. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When I change a public Look, does the URL have to change too?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jun 8, 2020 No, the URL remains the same when you edit a Public Look. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I merge users into my new [SAML/LDAP/Gauth/OpenID] authentication?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Sep 18, 2019 If you're migrating to Google Auth or LDAP, you can merge from Looker email/password credentials. You cannot merge from any other authentication source. The LDAP setup Docs and Gauth setup docs show the checkbox you need, "merge by email”. If you're migrating to SAML or OpenID, then this is easier. There is an option to merge users from LDAP, Google Auth, or email. More info in the SAML setup doc and OpenID setup doc. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I force users to log out when they close the browser?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 2019 Yes! You can disable "Persistent Sessions" under Admin > Authentication > Sessions.This forces users to log out on browser close, and it also gets rid of the "remember me" box. cite Docs. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Error: "SQL Dialect does not support Symmetric Aggregates with percentiles, field ignored"Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: March 2021 Looker’s percentile and median measure types employ some complex sql to perform percentile logic at the aggregate level rather than in a window function. To prevent fanout through joins, Looker needs to employ percentile_distinct, but this hasn't yet been built out for every database we support.Docs has an up to date list of what databases this is supported for, and there is a feature request in Pendo to support this globally. WorkaroundsUse `median` or `percentile` function in table calculations. Create a derived table which computes the median. This content is subject to limited support.

Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is Google OAuth?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jun 21, 2019 Google OAuth is Google's GSuite version of an OAuth 2 client. OAuth is a standard that apps can use to provide client applications with “secure delegated access”. OAuth works over HTTPS and authorizes devices, APIs, servers, and applications with access tokens rather than credentials.OAuth allows for:Different access levels: read-only VS read-write. This allows you to grant access to your user list or a bi-directional access to automatically synchronize your new LinkedIn friends to your GMail contacts. Access granularity: you can decide to grant access to only your contact information (username, e-mail, date of birth, etc.) or to your entire list of friends, calendar and what not. Access management: It allows you to manage access from the resource provider's application. If the third-party application does not provide a mechanism for cancelling access, you would be stuck with them having access to your information. With OAuth, there is provision for revoking a

Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why doesn't my model show up as an option when creating a model set?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Oct 31, 2019 Several possible reasons:The model is not in production The model is not configured The model has validator (especially parsing) errors The model doesn't have a valid explore defined inside of it. This content is subject to limited support.

Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Is there a Table Calc function that lets me reference a specific row value (row index)?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 21, 2019 Yes!index(expression, n) will return the "Nth" row defined by the expression. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I change my commas to decimals for international currency?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: March 2021 This can be done with Looker’s localization options! Prior to the release of that feature, this html workaround helped:html: {{ rendered_value | replace: '.', 'z' | replace: ',','.' | replace: 'z', ','}} ;;This content is subject to limited support.

Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why Would you Use SAML with Looker?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jun 24, 2019 It's Standardized:Loads of applications will understand it, regardless of the provider because there’s a standardized protocol that all SAML works off of (think of a world where there’s one SQL dialect instead of several slightly different ones that work off the same ideas).It's Secure:SAML is used to provide a single point of authentication at a secure identity provider, meaning that user credentials never leave the firewall boundary, and then SAML is used to assert the identity to others. This means there are fewer places for identities to be breached or stolen. SAML also provides a strong layer of security by leveraging Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to protect the asserted identities against attempted attacks.It's User-Friendly:SAML provides the ability for users to securely access multiple applications with a single set of credentials entered once. This is the foundation of federation and also of single sign-on (SSO). Using SAML, users can seamlessly acc

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does Looker support IdP initiated Login?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 2019Yes! Normally, authentication is initiated by the SP (which calls out to the IdP), but Looker additionally supports IdP initiated Login for SAML, according to Docs.Um, what are those acronyms?An IdP is an "identity provider". In the context of Looker, this is a third party authentication manager like SAML, LDAP, or Google Auth.An SP is a "service provider". This is a super broad term, but in the case of authentication it refers to Looker, as Looker provides a web service. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How long is deleted content kept in the trash tab?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 From Docs: "Content in the Trash folder does not expire and will remain until you restore or permanently delete it." This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Which `persist for` takes precedence out of PDTs, explores, models, etc.?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 From Docs: "If persist_for is set for both a model and one of its explores, the value set for the explore will take priority for queries based on that explore."Link to persist_for docpersist_for for PDTs are unrelated and follow their own clock. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does a Looker instance restart bust the query cache?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020No. Only datagroups or manually clicking “clearing cache and refresh” on a Look/explore/dashboard busts query cache. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Error: `Invalid attribute value` with Number User AttributeKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020Make sure you're using the "number filter (advanced)" type user attribute.If you're just using "number", then you will only be able to enter numbers. The "number filter (advanced)" type is required to put in filter strings like >0 or NOT NULL. This content is subject to limited support.

samLooker Staff

published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can you pull someone's dev branch code without them having to push to production?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 You can create a shared branch from someone's personal branch and use that! This content is subject to limited support.

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