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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

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.                

550
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What liquid variables can be used with reference line labels?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 1, 2018 You can combine words with the actual value of a reference line to create a label. For example:Average: {{mean}}will show something like Average: 123.0The following calculations can be put in the {{ }} syntax:median mean max min deviation (represents the std deviation) variance​ This content is subject to limited support.                   

550
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
kevin.dunnLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Unavailable Ports on Looker Hosted InstancesKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 28, 2020 Here's a list of ports that Looker already listens on, and won't be available for other processes (e.g., SSH Tunnels)Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program nametcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:19997 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:19998 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:32000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:9997 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:6062 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:9998 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 127.0.0.53:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -tcp6 0 0 :::19999 :::* LISTEN 25756/javatcp6 0 0 :::1551 :::* LISTEN 25756/javatcp6 0 0 :::9999 :::* LISTEN 25756/javatcp6 0 0 :::111 :::* LISTEN -tcp6 0 0 :::46677 :::* LISTEN 25756/javatcp6 0 0 :::9910 :::* LISTEN 25756/javatcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN -  This content is subject to limited support.           

550
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Lan
Looker Staff
LanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Where do we save Look and Dashboard inside the server?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 25, 2020Looker objects (view file, model file, LookML dashboard files, etc) are inside each model’s project in the server. For Looks and User-Defined Dashboard (UDD), Looker saves the metadata in the internal database, and then we display them in the front end. You can use System Activity to query information from the internal database. This content is subject to limited support.                  

550
Lan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why do I see "no results" when drilling from a measure?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 14, 2020 The ProblemWhen I drill into a measure, such as a count, I see what is filtered on, and then the query shows "no results"The SolutionThis can occur when there is an error in one of the fields being retrieved. Try "explore from here", or check the Admin -> Queries panel to see if there are any queries with errors. From there, the query can be opened in SQL runner to debug it.It could also be the case that there just aren't results. Check the drill_fields parameter for the measure and verify that the generated SQL should produce results in their data. (You can get the generated SQL for the drill in the Admin > Queries panel).Or if you enter a new row limit, hit run, then you can now see the results. This could be due to the drill querying having cached results. This content is subject to limited support.                 

550
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are my only filter options “is on the day/is equal to” and “matches user attribute”?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: March 2021 If you are using a parameter as your filter, you will only see these two options, since parameters are designed to insert a single value into your code.On a dashboard, this will occur if the "Allow Multiple Values" feature for dashboard filters is off. Try turning it on.  This content is subject to limited support.                

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

Do the per-user-query-limit and thread pool limit increase in a cluster?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 15, 2020Yes! These are per-node limits. This content is subject to limited support.                  

550
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
srinija.godavarthiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Conditionally formatting measures selected from parametersKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 17, 2021 If you have a parameter like so:parameter: labor_type_parameter {type: stringallowed_value: { value: "Hours" }allowed_value: { value: "Headcount" }}Where hours and headcount are defined like so:measure: hours {type: sumsql: (${test} / 60.0) ;;value_format: "#,##0.00"}measure: headcount{type:average sql: (${test} / 10.0) ;;value_format:  "#,##0" } You can create a measure that has html like so to conditionally format based off of parameter selection. NOTE: this will not affect the visualization, only the data table.html: {% if labor_type_parameter._parameter_value == "'Hours'" %}{{ hours._rendered_value }}{% else %}{{ headcount._rendered_value }}{% endif %} ;; This content is subject to limited support.                  

550
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Eric_Lyons
Looker Staff
Eric_LyonsLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Send Look to SFTP Server Via Python SDKKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 18, 2020 If someone wants to send content to an SFTP server, but does not want to want to use the UI, they can use the API.import looker_sdkimport csvimport pysftp#SET SFTP CREDENTIALS HERE. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO SET THEM IN ANOTHER FILE AND IMPORT THEM SECURELYmyHostname = "DOMAIN"myUsername = "user"myPassword = "PASSWORD" ####Initialize API/SDK for more info go here: https://pypi.org/project/looker-sdk/#### IN THE SAME DIRECTORY CREATE AN INI FILE TO STORE API CREDENTIALS## INITIALIZE THE APIfrom looker_sdk import methods31, modelssdk = looker_sdk.init31() # or init40() for v4.0 APIme = sdk.me()### GET THE LOOK BY PASSING THE LOOK ID### WE ALSO WRITE THE FILE TO THE LOCAL DIRECTORY AS A CSVlook = sdk.run_look(look_id=12, result_format = "csv")file = open('read.csv', 'w') file.write(look)file.close() ### HERE WE SEND THE CSV TO THE SFTP SERVERwith pysftp.Connection(host=myHostname, username=myUsername, password=myPassword) as sftp:print("Connection succesfully stablish

550
Eric_Lyons
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Dean_Hicks
Looker Staff
Dean_HicksLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Removed a user from a SAML/External IDP Group but it isn't reflected in LookerKnowledge Drop

Last tested; Feb 4, 2020 SAML user mappings are updated when the user logs in. Have the user log out and log back in to reflect the change. This content is subject to limited support.                  

540
Dean_Hicks
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

month_x timeframeKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 3, 2019 This came from a custom month_18 (group by every 1.5 years) timeframe in redshift. Here is a generalized version for month_x where you can shift the start month by adjusting y: dimension: month_x { type: string sql: TO_CHAR(DATE_TRUNC('month', #Convert the result to an appropriate string DATEADD('month', # Going to add months at the end (DATE_PART(month,CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', 'America/Los_Angeles', ${created_raw} ))::integer + #These two lines calculate the number of months from 0000-01-01 to created_raw DATE_PART(year, CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', 'America/Los_Angeles', ${created_raw} ))::integer*12) - (DATE_PART(month,CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', 'America/Los_Angeles', ${created_raw} ))::integer -1+y+ #these two lines use Modulo X to subtract off the appropriate number of months to group by x (and shift by y) DATE_PART(year, CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', 'America/Los_Angele

540
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

What System Activity explore query will give me the same info as the Admin --> Queries panel?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 25, 2020 Yes! We can use the following System Activity query appended to our hostname to get (almost) all of the same information:/explore/system__activity/history?fields=history.created_time,history.status,history.connection_name,user.name,history.source,query.id,query.model,query.view,history.id,history.runtime,query.link,query.formatted_fields&f[query.created_time]=NOT+NULL&sorts=history.created_time+desc&limit=500&column_limit=50&vis=%7B%22x_axis_gridlines%22%3Afalse%2C%22y_axis_gridlines%22%3Atrue%2C%22show_view_names%22%3Afalse%2C%22show_y_axis_labels%22%3Atrue%2C%22show_y_axis_ticks%22%3Atrue%2C%22y_axis_tick_density%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22y_axis_tick_density_custom%22%3A5%2C%22show_x_axis_label%22%3Atrue%2C%22show_x_axis_ticks%22%3Atrue%2C%22y_axis_scale_mode%22%3A%22linear%22%2C%22x_axis_reversed%22%3Afalse%2C%22y_axis_reversed%22%3Afalse%2C%22plot_size_by_field%22%3Afalse%2C%22trellis%22%3A%22%22%2C%22stacking%22%3A%22%22%2C%22limit_displ

541
FabGuada
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Content Validator for Merged ResultsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 9, 2019 To follow along, think of a situation where you have a merged results tile which is named MR Dash. MR Dash merges the results of two explores(For example, Explore1 and Explore2) which currently belong to one model, named ModelA. Unfortunately, if you try to change the model name for Explore2 from the content validator, it ends up changing the model name for both in the case of merged results.Hence, a better way to approach this would be to convert the UDD(User defined dashboard) to a LookML dashboard, make the required changes, and then convert it back to a UDD.The steps we followed were as follows:From your dashboard tile MR Dash, retrieve the dashboard LookML. To do so, you can reference this link - https://docs.looker.com/dashboards/creating-lookml-dashboards#manually_building_or_modifying_a_lookml_dashboard Within this dashboard LookML snippet, for explore: explore2, change the model name to ModelB, and keep the model name for Explore1 as ModelA. Save this

540
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is there a delay in alert notifications?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 27, 2020 Let's say an alert is being triggered and met in the Alert panel, but the alert email that was supposed at, for example, 10AM is instead being sent out at 10:50AM, so there is a 50 minute delay.One likely reason for this is possibly a backed up alert or render queue. The rest of the instance is probably backed up with schedules/renders as well.Right now the default is 10 threads per instance for schedules and 3 for alerts as you can see on this documentation.You'll need to balance the resources and adjust as needed, so instead of scheduling the reports/ alerts at the same time, space them out evenly. This content is subject to limited support.                  

540
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Blog Archives

5 tips for growth attribution modeling that actually work

This content, written by Dean Wenstrand, was initially posted in Looker Blog on Aug 22, 2017. The content is subject to limited support.Someone told me that marketing attribution was a ‘sexy’ thing to talk about in the analytics community. Despite all the content on the topic, and there is a ton, one important fact gets overlooked almost all the time and the tips below will make sure you don’t miss it. It’s a bit of a secret but I think savvy digital marketers and their analyst counterparts deserve to know. Multi-touch, last-in, w-shaped, time decay, first-touch, etc.… none of it, by itself, actually matters. This is what matters: do the numbers that come out of your attribution model actually correlate with functional success and do the people who use it, in all their human glory, actually believe in and utilize those numbers to increase the success of your business? That’s it, that’s the secret. For all the beautiful theory, analytical purity and inflexible logic of specious attribut

540
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
10 months ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Blog Archives

7 questions to take your marketplaces & eCommerce analytics to the next level

This content, written by Denise Duffy, was initially posted in Looker Blog on Aug 6, 2018. The content is subject to limited support.Competition as an eCommerce or marketplaces business is fierce. Consumer expectations increase a little with every new website or app that launches: more options, the ability to customize, lower pricing, and seamlessly speedy service. How do you keep up with the competition let alone exceed expectations to stand out? Here are 7 questions the best companies, like Amazon, Deliveroo, and Etsy ask themselves: 1. Where are your customers coming from? There are a few things you should know when paying to acquire customers. You need to know where they’re coming from and how much it costs to bring them to your store. To which channel can you attribute these acquisitions? Exactly how many customers were acquired, and at what cost? With the right tools, you can build your own cross-programme metrics that empower you to take control of customer attribution claims, a

540
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
10 months ago
Ryo
Looker Staff
RyoLooker Staff
posted in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to get list of Admins

Problem: Although we can see the entire list of users, we can’t filter out admins from Admin > Users to get Admins only. Solution: We can easily get the list of admins from system activity!You can use the following URL by replacing your instance URL with <LOOKER_HOST_HERE>:https://<LOOKER_HOST_HERE>/explore/system__activity/user?fields=user_facts.user_id,user.name,user.email&f[user.is_disabled]=No&f[user_facts.is_admin]=Yes&sorts=user_facts.user_id&limit=500&vis=%7B%7D&filter_config=%7B%22user.is_disabled%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22is%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B%22constant%22%3A%22No%22%7D%2C%7B%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A0%2C%22error%22%3Afalse%7D%5D%2C%22user_facts.is_admin%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22is%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B%22constant%22%3A%22Yes%22%7D%2C%7B%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1%2C%22error%22%3Afalse%7D%5D%7D&origin=share-expanded

0
Ryo
Looker Staff
9 months ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

${TABLE} is not allowed in the 'X' property.Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 29, 2019 If you get an e-mail with a schedule error and it says ${TABLE} is not allowed in the 'X' property, this because you are using ${TABLE} outside of a sql parameter.Example of where this would fail:dimension: test {type: stringsql: ${TABLE}.field ;;# The below html references are incorrect. Substitution operators (the ${}) can't be used in html because they evaluate to SQL.html: My values are ${TABLE}.field and ${otherfield ;;} To fix this, use liquid references instead!dimension: test {type: stringsql: ${TABLE}.field ;;# {{value}} is how you reference the value of this field, and {{viewname.fieldname._value}} is how you reference the values of other fields.html: My values are {{value}} and {{otherfield._value}} ;;} This content is subject to limited support.                  

530
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

"Variable not found" when dynamically querying derived tables using parametersKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 26, 2020 Are you using the method outlined in Dynamically Query Tables Using Parameters with derived tables and hitting a pesky "Variable not found" error message in the LookML Validator?While derived tables in the format ${derived_table_or_view_name.SQL_TABLE_NAME} don't need to be joined (see If you reference a derived table in the SQL of another derived table, using ${viewname.SQL_TABLE_NAME}, do you have to join those views at the explore level?), they need to be joined if we're using a parameter. This is because the views must be joined in order to "listen" to the parameter.Example:view: selected_table {sql_table_name:{% if timeframe_selection._parameter_value == 'weekly' %}${weekly_view.SQL_TABLE_NAME}{% elsif timeframe_selection._parameter_value == 'daily' %}${daily_view.SQL_TABLE_NAME}{ % else % }${full_view.SQL_TABLE_NAME}{ % endif % } ;;parameter: timeframe_selection {type: unquotedallowed_value: {label: "Weekly"value: "weekly"}allowed_value: {label: "Daily"v

530
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does SQL Runner use cache?Knowledge Drop

Last Tested: Aug 30, 2018 No, it doesn't. While explores, looks, and dashboards may use cache, SQL Runner executes the query directly against the database.If it looks like SQL Runner is caching, check to make sure that it isn't the database doing that. Some databases such as Redshift may be doing result caching. This content is subject to limited support.                 

530
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
molly.lippsettLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Are there any repercussions for changing a project name?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 6, 2020 Must update deploy webhooks externally Will effect projects that remotely import this project, as that reference is hardcoded This content is subject to limited support.                  

530
molly.lippsett
Looker Staff
1 year ago
sam
Looker Staff
samLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Lookerbot Error: 401 "Unauthorized"Knowledge Drop

  Last tested: Sep 2019 This is a generic error message that can mean a lot of things.The first thing to check would be to go view the content as the Lookerbot user and make sure you have access in Looker.One user ran into this because they didn't set lookerbot environment variables, specifically the LOOKER_WEBHOOK_TOKEN. This content is subject to limited support.                

530
sam
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Cannot use stable views in schemaKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 14, 2020 This error shows up when we're using the publish_as_db_view parameter and the Looker database user doesn't have the permission to create views on the scratch schema.If the Looker database user doesn't have permission to create views, we will either need to grant them permission to create views or remove the publish_as_db_view (because when the new PDT is built, the old view is dropped and the new view with the stable name is placed onto the scratch schema).If this warning is seen when we're testing the connection in the Connections page, this warning can be ignored as long as long as we're not trying to use stable views. This content is subject to limited support.                   

530
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
Department of Customer LoveLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Change saml_user_id for a userKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 14, 2020Sometimes when we change a user's email on the IdP side, the saml_user_id doesn't change to reflect the new user's email. In order to get this to change, we'll need to clear your user SAML Credentials via API.Once you run this end point, the user should log back on and their saml_user_id should change accordingly. This content is subject to limited support.                  

530
Department of Customer Love
Looker Staff
1 year ago
A
Looker Staff
adina.katzLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

error "orphaned job finalized by Scheduler::Custodian"Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 25, 2019 The custodian was removed in Looker v6.6, so only older versions of Looker will show this message.The custodian ran during the Looker start up process and cleaned up any schedules that haven't completed and have no chance of completing. An example of this is a schedule that is in the "execute" state but there is no query running on the database for this schedule.So that error message indicated that the schedule was cleaned up by the custodian because there was no change of completion. This content is subject to limited support.                   

530
A
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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