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Technical Tips & Tricks

Previously internal product knowledge now available for you to explore!

  • 1,741 Topics
  • 303 Replies

1741 Topics

sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I change the user that appears on the Pull Request emails?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 14, 2020 If you're connecting via HTTPS, this will be tied to the credentials entered for that connection. Either reset the Git connection with different credentials or take advantage of user attributes to allow multiple credentials.If you're connecting via SSH, the user on the pull request emails will be the user that initially put the deploy key into the repo from Looker. It's a repo side user, not a Looker user. This post has more context on why our PR system works that way.So, to change that user, you'll need to delete the deploy key on the repo side, then reset the Git connection in Looker. The user that puts in the deploy key will be the user that shows up on those emails. This content is subject to limited support.                  

110
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What happens if the master git branch is protected on the git side with 'require pull requests'?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 11, 2020If the 'include administrators' box is not also checked, then Looker developers are still allowed to deploy changes to production as usual.If the 'include administrators' box is also checked, then an error will occur if developers try to deploy changes to productionThe recommendation is to enable pull requests on the Looker side. This content is subject to limited support.                  

110
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I see the progress of a PDT that's building in dev mode since they don't show up in the PDT panel?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 14, 2019 There's no way to do this from Looker right now. You can potentially see it on your DB, or by selecting the Show Processes option in SQL Runner's cog menu next to the connection which should show rebuilds both in dev and prod.In order to identify dev mode PDT builds (i.e. which user kicked off a rebuild), you can look at the comments in the statement which was sent to the db. If you can access the db logs, that would have a user id. This content is subject to limited support.                   

100
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
ryan.bouquet
Looker Staff
ryan.bouquetLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why Are My Dashboard Filters Becoming "Matches(Advanced)" for Some Users?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 4, 2020 This has to do with model permissions and filters of type: field. Ensure the users affected have model access to the fields used in the filters.We do this for security reasons. The dropdown menu in a filter can give clues as to what type the field in question is, and we don't want to expose any LookML information for a field that a user does not have permission to access otherwise. This content is subject to limited support.                    

100
ryan.bouquet
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I prevent embed users from accessing the global Shared folder?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 9, 2020To prevent embed users from accessing the global shared folder (not their group shared folder) you can manage access on the Shared folder to only grant access to non-embed users. To do this, you can create a new group, i.e. "Users with Access to Shared folder" and add all non-embed users to it. In Admin --> Content Access, you can then manage access on the Shared folder and add this new, non-embed user group to it. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

AssertionError in SDK callKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 30, 2020 Users of the SDK have seen this error in the past when using a dictionary syntax rather that using the WriteUser type in the bodyEx. GOODimport looker_sdkfrom looker_sdk import modelsnew_friend = sdk.update_user(user_id=#, body=models.WriteUser(first_name="first_name_test",last_name="last_name_test")) Ex. BAD import looker_sdknew_friend = sdk.me()print(new_friend)updated_user = sdk.update_user(user_id = #, body = {"User":{"first_name" : "first_name_test","last_name" : "last_name_test","group_ids" : "[#]"}} )print("updated_user: " + updated_user)  Does that mean when we reference the body we should always put a 'Write' in front of the call?Explanation that we could share with the customer:We have model objects (or classes) that we pass args into and Looker does the formatting for us. Our team is currently working on making the body parameters a bit more friendly, but right now, we recommend passing them into the model classes/objects and let the SDK do the work

100
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I include an aggregate in a sql_on: clause?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 1, 2020 Nope - in SQL order of operations, joins come before aggregation, therefore you can't have an aggregate in the sql_on: or any ON clause in a join. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why aren't logs being written?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 23, 2018 When Looker is no longer writing logs, a restart will get the process going again.This can happen if you do anything to the looker.log file, such as:edit looker.log from vi or another text editor delete looker.log move or rename looker.log ziplooker.logTDLR: Always make a copy of looker.log before doing anything. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
maxcorbin
Looker Staff
maxcorbinLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

If someone loses their ability to save_content, what happens to their looks and schedules?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 4, 2018 Their Looks remain intact but they lose the ability to delete or edit those Looks.Their schedules also remain intact if you remove the save_content permission (or even the schedule_look_email permission). This content is subject to limited support.                   

100
maxcorbin
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why does it take a long time to remove access of a user from Shared Folder?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 26, 2021 To summarize: After the DELETE /api/internal/core/3.1/content_metadata_access/331, {}, Looker runs several queries as below (note: not all queries are listed here -- I am pasting some examples to illustrate the process):Step 1: Confirm the permission of the user performing the action:SELECT * FROM "USER" WHERE ("ID" = 70) LIMIT 1SELECT * FROM "SESSION" WHERE ("TOKEN" = '[FILTERED]') LIMIT 1 Step 2: Get the ID of Looks, Dashboards, Spaces, etc inside the Shared Folder:SELECT * FROM "LOOK" WHERE ("LOOK"."ID" IN (1, 11))SELECT * FROM "DASHBOARD" WHERE ("DASHBOARD"."ID" IN (1, 2, 3, 41, 52, 65, 91, 93, 97, 105, 109, 110))SELECT * FROM "CONTENT_METADATA" WHERE ("CONTENT_METADATA"."PARENT_ID" = 37)Step 3: Looker inserts the action into the "Event" and commit "transaction" to remove accessINSERT INTO "EVENT" ("NAME", "CATEGORY", "CREATED_AT", "USER_ID", "SUDO_USER_ID", "IS_LOOKER_EMPLOYEE", "IS_ADMIN", "IS_API_CALL") VALUES ('delete_content_metadata_access', 'content

100
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does running a query from cache produce a new History ID?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 13, 2020 Yes.History view entries in system activity have a Result Source field that can either be "cache", "query", or null (for queries that don't return a result, in the case of errors for example).Each new entry has a unique ID, but indicates whether or not it was run from the cache or not. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What do the 5 digits mean when you run the sql for once per day at a given hour?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 19, 2021 In our docs here, https://docs.looker.com/reference/view-params/sql_trigger_value , we give you sql for how you can run a schedule once per day at any given hour.If you run that sql in SQL runner or any database console, you'll see that it returns 5 digits.Those 5 digits are not unix time. Those 5 digits are the number of times that timeframe (X hour) has been passed since the start of unix time. For instance, if you get 18705 returned, it means 18705 days have passed since 1970-01-01 This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Do we store users' embed secret key?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 21, 2019 Scenario: Users come to chat support to ask if we could give them their embed secret key. Someone in their team reset the embed secret key and now they are unable to see the key due to security reason.Answer: We can not give anyone their embed secret key. Even if it were not against policy, we store the key as a hash in the database, so it's impossible for any human to read and decode the hash and get the key as a clear text. An admin can reset the embed secret key. This content is subject to limited support.                   

100
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is there an extra field selected (and grouped) in my SQL?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Aug 3, 2018 Also asked as "Why do additional (extra) fields show up in the Select list and Group by when they have not been selected in the Explore"?This will happen if another field is referenced in a html or link parameter.Example:measure: recalls_percent {type: percent_of_totalsql: ${count} ;;link: {label: "{{make._value}} Details"url: "/dashboards/106?Make={{make._value}}"}} Generated SQL when only this measure is selected (note that my_table.MAKE is added to the query)SELECTmy_table.MAKE AS my_table_make,(COUNT(CASE WHEN (UPPER(my_table.TYPE ) = UPPER('RECALL')) THEN 1 ELSE NULL END)) AS my_table_recalls_percentFROM my_table Short answer, yes, because we need to populate the values for that link.Note: this is true of both link parameter and htmlThe solution is to create additional measures with or without the link as needed to avoid the additional GROUP BY This content is subject to limited support.                 

100
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does order_by_field affect suggestions?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 Yes! order_by_field works on both the result sets and on suggestions. This content is subject to limited support.                

100
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to get filter to equal to "any value" when drillingKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 13, 2020 A user has a Look with a default date filter that's not to 'any value'When they drill into it from a dashboard, they want to change the date filter to 'any value' instead of last 7 days.The filter will just be an equal sign, like so:url: "/looks/18?&f[orders.created_date]=&f[products.sku]... This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What are mode=0 & mode=1 in active_derived_table?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 10, 2020 The mode column indicates the state of the derived table.mode=0 being inserted into active_derived_table indicates that a table needs building. 2020-09-10 00:35:53.872 +0000 [INFO|5f59582f04833e9887e4d4b663f993dd|db:looker] :: (0.000946s) INSERT INTO `active_derived_table` (`key`, `structure`, `dead_at`, `name`, `connection`, `mode`, `model`, `retired_at`, `full_view_name`) VALUES ('TH9V2WU3F8FXOODPMURFG_some_table', 'THEQ5ULC9Z5BC1VYH13EF_some_table', 0, 'LR$TH9V21599698153866_some_table', 'some_model', 0, '', 32503593600, 'some_table' mode=1 being inserted into active_derived_table indicates that a regen thread has picked up this table and begun building in (typically the entry for the mode=1 build claim will have a pdt log action of "create begin" & pdt log action data of "prod." 2020-09-10 00:35:53.892 +0000 [INFO|5f59582f04833e9887e4d4b663f993dd|db:looker] :: (0.000916s) INSERT INTO `active_derived_table` (`key`, `structure`, `name`, `connection`, `d

100
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
kevin.dunnLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to find a full commit/tag SHAKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 10, 2020 The commit Tag/SHA is accessible inside of Looker's commit history, as well as inside of the remote repo.Inside of Looker's commit history, you can right click on a commit to copy the address - The SHA will be the last portion of the URL:​​Inside of the remote repository, you can navigate to the commits page and copy the SHA from there (this example is GitHub):​ This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is my PDF download missing fields?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 21, 2020Are you in dev mode? Rendering always pulls the prod version of content, so if you created the fields in dev mode and haven't pushed to prod, your render jobs won't have the new fields. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How is the "Estimated Time" for a query calculated?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 2020  Looker uses the time it took to run that query last time to predict estimated time. However, it uses the query parameters to determine this, not the SQL, so if you drastically change a LookML definition the estimate may be wrong.If the query hasn't been run before, Looker does not show an estimate. This content is subject to limited support.                

100
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
jamesnestlerLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I still create users in Looker if I'm using LDAP/SAML?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 22, 2020 Yes!The user will be unable to login, however, unless they have the login_special_email permission, or are granted access on the LDAP/SAML side. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
1 year ago
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
jamesnestlerLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Label dates by an increment (dates since x)Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 10, 2019 CASEwhen ROUND(datediff / increment, 0) <= 1 then "label 1" else concat( "label 2", cast(round(datediff / increment, 0) as string))end  This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
jamesnestler
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can Looker connect to a database through a jumpbox?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 30, 2018 Yes! This is just our regular SSH tunnel setup. A jumpbox is another name for the tunnel server in this diagram from docs. This content is subject to limited support.                  

100
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I send System Activity data to other users or non-admins?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 9, 2018 Yes, you can send System Activity content to other users, even non-Admins. For example you could schedule a csv attachment to go to any user. Just note that only Admins and users with the see_system_activity permission can view that data back in the Looker platform. This content is subject to limited support.                   

90
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
Department of Customer LoveModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does Looker allow 2FA other than Google Auth (Like Duo)?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 12, 2019 Looker only supports Google Auth at the moment.Note that you can use Duo with some SAML providers, so it is possible! You just need to be using SAML with Looker. This content is subject to limited support.                 

90
Department of Customer Love
Moderator
1 year ago

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