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The Kitchen Table

Explore the product knowledge we've built up together

2115 Topics

sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

If the cache is full, then what gets dropped first?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 2021 Looker's default max cache size is 2GB. This can be changed with the --on-disk-cache-size=<i> startup option, where <i> is a number of megabytes (so, default 2000).If your Looker instance detects that the on-disk cache exceeds the max, then it starts purging old cache entries until the limit is no longer exceeded. The algorithm to determine which entries to purge considers the age of a cache entry as well as the last time that cache entry was accessed.  This content is subject to limited support.                 

2701
Anton
4 months ago
karisa.eberly
Moderator
karisa.eberlyModerator
published in Common Account Questions

How are bugs prioritized within the Looker Engineering Team?Knowledge Drop

Our Looker Engineering Team uses a carefully designed prioritization system to assess issues as they arise. This system is based on several factors such as the impact of the issue and how widespread it is. When you report a bug, you can ask for follow up about its priority to better understand its timeline towards resolution. If you have a question about a bug’s status, please reach out to your Account Manager.

690
karisa.eberly
Moderator
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Selected articles about Looker API & SDK use cases

We have gathered a list of community and help center articles covering some major API & SDK use cases. We hope this makes it easier for you to browse and navigate. The code examples are for demo purposes only. For any further questions on those use cases please post a comment under those articles directly. GeneralI Mastered Looker’s Interactive API Docs. What Now?Introducing the API Explorer: Interactive documentation for the Looker API & SDKsDefault API port on GCP and Azure (why can’t I connect to the API for instances hosted on Kubernetes)Quickstart: Looker API Ruby SDKWhy is my API call returning a 403 Forbidden error?Easily loading JSON to a dataframePostman & Looker (1)Postman & Looker (2)Is there a limit to the number of API requests you can send at one time?Migration from API 3.0 to 3.1: Change Log & Notes Data export and DeliveryRun Looks from Google Spreadsheetes Using Looker APICreating a Data Dictionary Using Looker’s APIGenerating a Data Dictionary in G

12540
anggi wijaya
5 months ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we assign groups to the Users space?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 6, 2019 Short answer would be no, there is a request for this functionality here: Make user folders private by defaultA colleague have suggested a workaround in the link above for the following use case:You want your users to explicitly share content with any other user (not a closed system), but not have users be able to search / see Content in User spaces, without explicit permission to see it. Essentially you need an all users group, but that all user's group never to be added to User Spaces.Automatically add every user to a manual All Users Group (e.g., E Users), however you are using Google Authentication and cannot automatically add a group. (API or manually instead) Have your other defined groups (Marketing, CS, Finance) all added to another group E Users. This gives everyone the ability to see the other users, but not their spaces unless explicitly added. This is what you will be using because you already have these user groups. This content is subject to limit

220
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

Selected articles about LookML

Selected articles about LookML We have gathered some selected community and help center articles and organised them in different topics. Hope this makes it easier for you to search and navigate. General Why do we recommend many_to_one joins over one_to_many joins?How to add a new row of data with LookMLAdvanced LookML - Hub and Spoke modelingNested Data in BigQuery (Repeated Records) Cohort Analysis and Retention AnalysisAdvanced LookML - Cohort and Retention AnalysisCreating Dynamic TiersCalculating Cohort Size for Cohorting[Analytic Block] - Cohorts as Filters using Templated Filters[Analytic Block] Daily, Weekly, Monthly Active UsersCombining multiple transactions into a single event table[Analytic Block] - Customer Lifetime Value - Simple ApproachSet up Flexible Retention Analysis without Derived Tables[Analytics Block] Customer Retention and Lifetime Value - Survival Style[Analytic Block] Retention Analysis Period Over Period Analysis Methods for Period Over Period (PoP) Analysis

13670
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

Selected articles about SQL use cases in Looker

Selected articles about SQL use cases in Looker We have gathered a list of community and help center articles organised in different topics. Hope this makes it easier for you to search and navigate. TroubleshootingCommon SQL error troubleshooting tips in Looker Calendar tableHow to combine a retail calendar with retail sales dataGenerate Date Series/ Create a calendar view of future datesGenerating a sequence of numbers or datesHow to Set Multiple Week Definitions in Looker Conditional joinCASE in sql_on: Conditional Joins when field = value DatagroupPDT trigger value at a specific time and day of week, once a weekHow to trigger datagroup/PDT rebuilds X minutes past each hour between certain hours of the day Parsing dataParsing JSON data in LookerUsing Postgres and JSON Functions and Operators to Parse JSON FieldsDefining JSON Objects as LookML Dimensions Query performanceEXPLAIN functionA (Hitchhiker’s) Guide to Query Performance in Looker SQL in LookML fieldsCase when lookml vs. sqlc

5760
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
karisa.eberly
Moderator
karisa.eberlyModerator
published in Common Account Questions

Is Looker training free?Knowledge Drop

Many of our training materials are currently available to you at no cost. However, there are some that do have an additional fee. See below for a full list of offerings: Looker Connect is our new training platform and has learning pathways for data consumers and developers. Check out the “Getting Started with Looker Connect” document attached for more info. We also have two new on-demand courses, Analyzing and Visualizing Data in Looker and Getting Started with LookML. If you are interested in either of these, please contact your Account Team.  Looker Certification: The Looker Business Analyst Certification ended on December 31st, 2021 while the LookML Developer exam is available until March 31st, 2022. Check out this doc for more on Looker Certifications. We have a substantial variety of new offerings for Looker training in Looker Connect and in Google Cloud Skills Boost, and many culminate in skill badges. Skill badges are a useful tool to show proficiency in a specific area.  L

31679
B
15 days ago
karisa.eberly
Moderator
karisa.eberlyModerator
published in Common Account Questions

How Do I Get a Custom URL / Domain?Knowledge Drop

Some customers choose to add a custom/vanity URL (also known as adding a custom domain) to their Looker instance. This is typically done to avoid third party cookie issues. If you are interested in this, please reach out to your Account Manager as it may incur additional charges. In addition, please review the breaking changes that can occur when adding a custom URL here. Questions on this process? Comment below!

20320
karisa.eberly
Moderator
1 year ago
karisa.eberly
Moderator
karisa.eberlyModerator
published in Common Account Questions

Where can I get a copy of the SOC 2 Compliance Report?Knowledge Drop

For a copy of the SOC 2 compliance report, please reach out to your Account Manager. Once that is received, a request to share the report with you will be submitted. You will then receive an email from Google's Engineering Compliance Team with the appropriate report. Questions on this process? Comment below!

8830
karisa.eberly
Moderator
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I create a blank label in the explore?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 6, 2020 If you want to have a label appear as completely blank, we've found success in using the whitespace character from here in the label: https://beautifuldingbats.com/whitespace/ This content is subject to limited support.                   

1700
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is there a dimension I didn't select in the GROUP BY of my explore?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 17, 2020One way this can happen is if you include the dimension in the liquid/filter of another selected field - for example, if you reference a dimension in the link parameter of another measure. This content is subject to limited support.                  

320
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What’s the largest number you can set max_cache_age to?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 24, 2020 A hard limit is yet to be confirmed, but we've tested as much as 365 days:datagroup: year_datagroup {max_cache_age: "6360 hours"} Typically this should not be necessary, as you want to set the interval to how frequently you expect the sql_trigger to change. This content is subject to limited support.                  

870
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I tell which dashboards are auto-refreshing?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 21, 2020 There is a "Refresh Interval" field in the Dashboard explore in System Activity that gives this information This content is subject to limited support.                  

2020
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can you enable required pull requests for just some users?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 25, 2020Sort of - pull requests are enabled per project, but for all developers on that project. This content is subject to limited support.                  

180
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Error creating new branch: cannot specify base branch other than current when there are uncommitted changesKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 9, 2020 If you see this error when trying to create a new branch, check that you have no uncommitted changes on the branch you're on - you can't switch with uncommitted code, so there are changes, either commit or revert them to switch. This content is subject to limited support.                   

560
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is the `POST webhooks/projects/[project]/deploy` call I see in logs?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 29, 2020This is the call Looker makes when creating and pushing a new branch This content is subject to limited support.                  

351
aloginov
3 months ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Rack app error: #ArgumentError: invalid byte sequence in UTF-8Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 16, 2020A user saw this error in the logs after trying to connect a project to an existing git repo.This is due to a file in the repo having non utf8 encoding - this can sometimes be caused by either a corrupt file, or just Windows line endings. Try changing the encoding on the files to utf8 and pulling again! This content is subject to limited support.                  

720
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
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.                  

140
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

SFTP Operation failed for host [host] failed on error: Net::SFTP::StatusException (2, "no such file")Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 31, 2020 A common point of confusion in SFTP deliveries is that the path you give to Looker always has to be the fully qualified path from the root directory, while some other SFTP tools don’t have that requirement. SFTP servers are sometimes configured to drop users in the home directory rather than root. So if you input a path relative to root, and it's not in the root directory itself, it will reference a root folder that doesn't exist.We can figure out the full SFTP path relative to root by using the PWD command.Also, check for a / in the name of the Look or Dashboard.This can also occur if there is a file that already exists in the SFTP server that has the same name as the delivery path. This creates an invalid path to write to that location. Removing this file should resolve the issue. This content is subject to limited support.                  

2230
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I use markdown in a dashboard note?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 7, 2019We are currently not able to do that! But there is a feature request you can vote for on our feedback system: Support Markdown in Dashboard Notes . Using markdown in text tiles are generally a good workaround This content is subject to limited support.                  

2600
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Uh oh! I accidentally linked a new project to an existing project's git repo!Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 31, 2020 Accidents happen. This one's happened a few times: A user has a project A connected to a git repo, they create a new project B and mistakenly link it to the same remote git repo. How can they split these projects back up? Unfortunately the fix here will be a bit manual.First thing is to make sure you have a second remote repository ready for project B. Point project B at the new repo - if the code from project A has already been synced into project B from the mistakenly shared remote repo, then you will need to manually delete the files from project A. Then, push project B to remote - this will push to the new project. Now, you need to get project B files out of project A. Manually delete these from project A and push these changes - this will push to the original git repo. This content is subject to limited support.                  

230
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Deploy key does not have write accessKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 24, 2020We saw one case where a user was seeing this error, despite setting up the deploy key correcting in Gitlab.In this case, the user was able to resolve this by creating a README.md file in the repo. Since the repo was completely empty, no branches, they couldn't make the connection. Adding the README.md let them verify the write access. This may have had to do with the fact that the user was using a protected master branch, though we could not recreate the behavior. This content is subject to limited support.                  

4370
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why isn't there a git workflow button in my project?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 26, 2020 We saw an instance where a user was using HTTPS connection with user attributes, with separate credentials for Dev and Prod mode. The dev user attribute credentials worked, so the git connection test passed, but the credentials entered for Prod were not authorized. This caused the git workflow button to not appear, and the deploy webhook to fail.Fixed by resetting git connection and entering working credentials for both modes. This content is subject to limited support.                  

550
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

PDTs showing up 'Not built' in admin panel when they are builtKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 22, 2018 This can be caused by commented out liquid in a PDT - commenting in LookML does not prevent that text from being evaluated in SQL. This can cause a different hash to be applied to the PDT in the admin panel, preventing its build events from showing up despite them running properly.PDTs in this state work fine, and you can remove the commented out liquid from the affected PDT and push to prod to have it appear properly.It can also appear if the derived table is defined in LookML but never queried from an explore  This content is subject to limited support.                  

1580
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do you use an alias parameter with a dimension_group?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 6, 2018 You just alias the dimension group itself, not the individual fields. So if you had a dimension_group: oldname {} and want to rename it to newname, you can set the alias like:dimension_group: newname {alias: [oldname]} This content is subject to limited support.                  

980
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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