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Previously internal product knowledge now available for you to explore!

  • 1,744 Topics
  • 406 Replies

1744 Topics

Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I make OR filters when using Filters on Measures?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Sep 6, 2019 This is outlined in a Help Center article. For a single field with multiple values, you can put them all into the filter string:measure: count_field {type: countsql: ${TABLE}.total_orders ;;filters: {field: ordersvalue: "1, 4, null"}} Where we end up filtering WHERE orders = 1 OR orders = 4 OR orders IS NULL.If you want OR logic between two different fields, put the conditions into the SQL of a yesno dimension and filter on the yesno being "yes".dimension: this_or_that {type: yesnosql: ${fish} = 'red' OR ${eggs} = 'green' ;;} This content is subject to limited support.                   

15260
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 isn't Clear Cache and Refresh working?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 21, 2019 Possible reasons that queries might still appear to pull from cache even when using Clear Cache and Refresh:You have caching set up at the database level. Example: Redshift You are trying to clear cache and refresh for embed content. This article covers how to clear cache and refresh for embed content, including dashboard Clear Cache functionality (starting from 7.10). This content is subject to limited support.                 

12010
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

Are Trash and Unused Content spaces only available to Admins?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 21, 2019 Yes, only Admin users will be able to see the Trash and Unused Content Spaces/folders.Here are the docs for further reading. This content is subject to limited support.                   

360
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

Will using "Pull from Production" overwrite or wipe out my unsaved/uncommitted changes in Dev Mode?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jul 3, 2018 No it should not. Using "Pull From Production" will merge production into the working Dev Mode state and will NOT wipe out unsaved/uncommitted changes.HOWEVER, important to note, unsaved changes can be wiped out if the developer selects the specific option to Revert Uncommitted Changes. This content is subject to limited support.                 

10510
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

As a developer, I can edit the model, but I cannot access any of the explores in this model when I'm in dev mode, only in production mode. Why is that?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jan 22, 2019 Wow, that's strange! If we check the model access of the developer role, we would also notice that developers do not even have access to this model. What?! How can this person even access the explore under production mode then? Actually this happened with a reason! With no surprise, developers will also have other roles or groups, this gives them some lower level permissions, you might also see the model that referred in this issue appeared in one of these roles or groups, and very likely these roles does not have "develop" permission. The role permission is model specific, so if a developer role does not have access to a model, then the explores on this model will not be accessible under neither prod or dev mode. If a view-only role with access to this model is given to the developer role user, then this user will be granted the access to the explores under production mode, same as the view-only users, but dev mode access will be still limited by the develope

4280
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

Can I choose what row value to show in a Single Value Visualization?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Jul 3, 2018 By default no, but there is a workaround. For further reference on the default behavior, see the logic in Docs.There are a couple ways to visualize a specific row from the results table: Specific Row Value with YesNoFor example, to always show the last value in a column, use:row()-count(${dimension_name})=0 This will only be Yes for the last value. Then choose the Hide "No"s from Visualization option.You could then adjust this to show the 2nd to last row, and so on:#for 2nd to last rowrow()-count(${dimension_name})=-1 Reverse Running TotalIf you created a running total table calculation and want to show the "bottom" value, you can reverse the running total usingRunning Total Up:sum(offset_list(${measure},0,count(${dimension})-row()+1)) In that scenario, the first workaround could be applied as well. This content is subject to limited support.                 

14700
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I choose which commits to push to production?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested:  March 2021 Yes! You can use Advanced Deploy Mode to deploy specific commits to push to production. However, it is important to note this will not change your local dev mode - use the method in this community article to get your local dev mode to match local production once you deploy from a previous commit. This content is subject to limited support.                

2270
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I set gmail.com as a domain when setting up Google Auth?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 No. Despite this being a very bad idea (why let everyone with a gmail address log into your Looker?), it also turns out it's not possible. This is part of why you want to own the domain(s) that you enter in the Google Auth panel.The reason: When authenticating a user via Google Auth, Looker checks the 'domain' value for the user using the 'google_plus_api' api call to Google. But, it turns out that that is not set for gmail accounts. Those users are, apparently, not in the gmail domain in that way that other domain users are.

380
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I group or bucket by table calculations?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 No. Table calculations are computed after SQL grouping, so it's not possible to group by them.Only dimensions can be grouped on. Consider using a custom dimension for quick grouping! https://docs.looker.com/exploring-data/adding-fields/custom-measure#creating_a_custom_dimension_using_a_looker_expression This content is subject to limited support.                 

37530
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Number Comparisons in LiquidKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 in Liquid the comparison operators are:< lesser than (<= less or equal to)> greater than (>= greater or equal to)== equal!= not equalCitation: https://help.shopify.com/themes/liquid/basics/operators  

460
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does a "pull" or "revert to production" close existing pull requests?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 No. Each pull request is on its own branch, so reverting your dev branch to production does not affect your PRs in any way. This content is subject to limited support.                

610
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I put a SAML XML file into Looker?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 2019 Yes, that is an optional step in setting up SAML with Looker. The option is called "IdP Metadata (Optional)". Paste in your raw XML, or a publicly accessible link to your XML, and hit "Load".cite SAML setup. This content is subject to limited support.                

570
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I filter on a running total measure?Knowledge Drop

Last verified: March 2021Measures of type running_total are technically table calculations. It's a sum measure plus the running_total table calculation. For more context check out our documentation about measure type: running_totalHence, it's not possible to filter on this kind of measure for the same reason it's not possible to filter on table calculations. You should make a sum measure instead, and then use the running_total table calculation. Then you can apply the desired filter to the sum measure. This content is subject to limited support.                

6760
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When a new column is added to my database table, how do I generate LookML for it?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 The only way to have Looker generate LookML for you is to create a new view generated from a table, or to add a query to LookML from SQL Runner. From there, you'd pretty much copy what you wanted from the generated file into your existing file, and then delete the new file.Another idea (which sounds good in theory, but may be too complex in practice) is to have two views: a base view that is just auto-generated LookML, and another view that extends the base view and makes desired changes. This way, you can just re-generate and obliterate the base view whenever you know your database changes.There is a feature request for this functionality here: https://portal.feedback.us.pendo.io/app/#/case/17638

7400
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I duplicate a dashboard, but reference a different database connection?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 You will want to leverage LookML dashboards to do this:1. Convert the dashboard to a LookML dashboard. 2. Each LookML dashboard needs to be included in a model. So, make a new model that is identical to your existing model, but has a different connection.3. Reference this lookml dashboard in your new model.4. Convert the LookML dashboard back to a UDD 5. Delete the LookML dashboard This content is subject to limited support.                

9420
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can you auto-generate a model file in an existing project?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 No.When you first make a project, you are prompted to generate LookML for it based on a database connection. You won't get this option a second time, mostly because we assume you've made changes to the model file since then.You can, however, create a new view from a database table by clicking the plus sign ("Add Files") in the LookML IDE and choosing "Create View From Table". This content is subject to limited support.                

3511
mehrnaz.akbari-1632741833
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I hide the `explore from here` option from a dashboard?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 As long as the user viewing the dashboard has the explore permission on the relevant models, they will see "explore from here" when clicking on the gear of any tile on the dashboard.So, you disabling the explore permission for that user will prevent them from being able to see this option.See here for our docs on permissions.  

7880
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to replicate the link param dropdown menu with a html tag?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 Generally speaking, a html tag can only provide a single link.However, we have a neat community topic that takes advantage of the html tag <details> in order to create something similar to a link dropdown! This content is subject to limited support.                 

1310
sam
Looker Staff
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.                

130
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What kind of LookML changes can break dashboards and Looks?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020 Generally speaking, changes to view names, Explore names, and field names can break content. The names of LookML objects like these are used in Looks and Dashboards, as well as other references inside LookML.Instead of changing LookML object names, you should use label when possible to only change how the object is viewed to the end user, not how it's referenced.You can see what's broken by running Content Validator in your dev mode. More importantly, you can also use the Content Validator to fix what's broken by replacing view, Explore, or model names for affected content. This content is subject to limited support.                

2640
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I rename a dashboard tile title without editing the Look title?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 No, a title for a Look-based dashboard tile title directly corresponds to the Look title. This content is subject to limited support.                  

510
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I delete a LookML dashboard?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2020  You can't delete a LookML dashboard from the LookML dashboard space. Instead, delete the LookML dashboard file.Alternatively, you can remove the dashboard's include statement from each model, then the dashboard won't show up in the LookML dashboard space.. This content is subject to limited support.                

3780
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is there a blank value in my explore?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 2020 Explores almost never show blank values - they almost always at least show a null symbol.If an explore is blank, look at the html. Does commenting out the HTML allow you to see values? Do you have a Liquid "if" statement which doesn't have an "else"? Did you forget to put a value inside your html? Ex: html: <a href="google.com"></a>;; won't show anything, you need to put a value between the tags like this: html: <a href="google.com">TEXT TO SHOW</a>;; This content is subject to limited support.                

1810
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I require a filter/field if another field is selected?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 There is no way to bring filters or fields into the UI conditionally.However, there are workarounds for affecting the generated SQL.Bringing filter SQL into the WHERE ClauseIf you want to put something into the WHERE clause if a field is selected, you can use a sql_always_where statement. This supports liquid such as `{% if field_name._is_selected %}`.Bringing a field into the SELECT ClauseThe LookML parameter called "required fields" brings in other fields to the generated SQL when this field is selected. This content is subject to limited support.                

3770
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I require a filter?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021  If you want the users to be able to see and change the filter, use always_filter.If you don't want the users to be able to see or change the filter, put the SQL into sql_always_where. This content is subject to limited support.                

430
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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