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The Kitchen Table

Explore the product knowledge we've built up together

2115 Topics

Pieter_DeVries
Looker Staff
Pieter_DeVriesLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

ERROR : Internal database configuration issueKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 11, 2020 Starting in 7.20, Looker now validates the dialect and version of the internal database during startup. If something other than the default in-memory Hypersql or a Mysql v5.7.x database is used as the internal database, Looker logs an error message before performing any startup migrations. There are two possible error messages:"The Looker internal database is not the default in-memory HyperSQL database or a MySQL 5.7.x database" This is thrown when you are using a supported dialect (i.e. hypersql by default, or mysql via looker-db.yml) but not a supported version (ex: mysql v8.0.1). "{dialect name} is not a valid dialect option for the Looker internal database" This is thrown when you aren't using a supported dialect in looker-db.yml (ex: aurora, mariadb, etc.). Because Looker is developed and tested around hypersql and mysql v5.7.x databases, those are the only two supported configurations. Given our lack of testing beyond hypersql and mysql v5.7.x, any dev

700
Pieter_DeVries
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I track slack actions in system activity?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 21, 2020 Yes! With the event attribute explore.Sample URL to share:/explore/system__activity/event_attribute?fields=event.created_time,user.name,event.name,event.category,event_attribute.name,event_attribute.value&f[event.name]=%25slack%25&sorts=event.created_time+desc&limit=500&query_timezone=America%2FLos_Angeles&vis=%7B%7D&filter_config=%7B%22event.name%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22contains%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B%22constant%22%3A%22slack%22%7D%2C%7B%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A2%2C%22error%22%3Afalse%7D%5D%7D&dynamic_fields=%5B%5D&origin=share-expanded This content is subject to limited support.                  

270
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I use a filter to exclude dates?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 7, 2019 The date options for a filter don't have one for "is not on the day". There is a feature request for that on our feedback system: Be able to filter for not a certain date (exclude a date). We can use a custom filter with this syntax:${orders.created_date} != date(2019,05,03)another option is:NOT matches_filter(${orders.created_date}, '2019/05/09')and for dashboards or users who can't use a custom filter there is a workaround to use this filter declaration:filter: exclude_dates {description: "enter dates to exclude in the format yyyy-mm-dd"type: stringsql: NOT {%condition exclude_dates %} ${created_date} {% endcondition %} ;;} This content is subject to limited support.                  

7480
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Will value_format affect JSON results in the API?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 18, 2018 Yes!Call run_query or run_inline_query setting the apply_formatting param to true and this will pick up the value_format option from the lookML.  This content is subject to limited support.                  

90
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I include a comment in a custom field?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 20, 2019 Yes! A comment line begins with a #, just like in a table calculation This content is subject to limited support.                  

470
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to find all models used by a dashboardKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 26, 2020 The problem is that a user can't see the data on a dashboard and we don't know which models they need permissions for.We can use this query in system activity if we know the dashboard ID:/explore/system__activity/history?fields=history.real_dash_id,query.model,query.count&f[history.real_dash_id]=1845&sorts=history.real_dash_id+desc&limit=500&query_timezone=America%2FLos_Angeles&vis=%7B%7D&filter_config=%7B%22history.real_dash_id%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22%3D%22%2C%22values%22%3A%5B%7B%22constant%22%3A%221845%22%7D%2C%7B%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A2%7D%5D%7D&dynamic_fields=%5B%5D&origin=share-expanded  This content is subject to limited support.                  

1020
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Are Amazon S3 bucket credentials encrypted when Looker stores them?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 4, 2021Yes! S3 creds are encrypted in the scheduled_plan_destination table. This content is subject to limited support.                  

300
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why can't I save a Look? The Save button is grayed outKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 4, 2020 Does the Look title have a % character in it? When a Look containing a % character in its title (let's call it "% Look"), where if the % were interpreted as a wildcard, the Look's name would match an existing Look (let's call it "named Look"), the % Look cannot have edits to it saved, as the save button will not activate on the % Look unless the title is changed, or the name of the named Look is changed to not wildcard match the % Look.Edit the Look's title to not match another Look, such as removing the percent symbol, or adding additional characters to the Look's name. (as an example, updating "Waitlist Funnel (%)" to "Waitlist Funnel (percent)" or "Waitlist Funnel - (%)". This content is subject to limited support.                  

3450
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
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.                  

150
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why does my donut multiple chart tooltip say 'undefined' ?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 22, 2019 A donut multiple chart can be created from only measures (no dimensions). In this case, the tooltip will show 'undefined'.A simple workaround is to create a custom dimension or table calculation) with and empty string (" " or "") and add that to the explore. Then this empty string will show up in the tooltip instead of "undefined". This content is subject to limited support.                  

2730
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does Instant Dashboards work in embed?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 16, 2020No, it doesn't. "Fast cached results" do not work in embed because of differences in drill links that aren’t considered in the cache key. This content is subject to limited support.                  

330
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I create a custom filter for "today or 2 weeks ago?" to show only 2 dates in the explore for comparisonKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 6, 2020 First we have to construct the date for 'today', and then use an OR with add_days on that 'today' date It ends up like this: ${history.created_date}=date(extract_years(now()),extract_months(now()),extract_days(now())) OR ${history.created_date}=add_days(-14,date(extract_years(now()),extract_months(now()),extract_days(now())))​ This content is subject to limited support.                  

2780
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does system activity track changes made to user attribute values?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 12, 2021No, it does not. If a user is edited to update the value of a user attribute, there is somewhat generic record added to the 'event' table for the user, and also the user's group being updated, as it appears that all of the user's values are updated in the internal database when a user definition is saved. This content is subject to limited support.                  

580
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

why would a custom SMTP test button work but schedules fail?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 19, 2019 1) The message failed to be delivered to the SMTP serverThere have been a couple incidents in the past where using the "pretty" email domain User Name <user@domain.com>  instead of simply  `user@domain.com` has caused the "Test" button to work in the SMTP test page, but caused various SMTP errors when actually sending contentThe admin should try using just user@domain.com instead.2) The relay server or receiver of the email is blocking the email from going throughThere are some situations where the SMTP server itself or spam filters will block certain emails differently, so even though the test email may have gone through, the scheduled email with attachments and a different email body could be causing issues.In this case, you would need to look at your SMTP server's logs to see if the email got to the SMTP server, and if so if it was blocked/bounced or sent on to the email to the recipient. This content is subject to limited support.                  

530
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I use Amazon Aurora as our backend database instead of MySQL?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 8, 2019 No, this isn't supported but you can share your use case with our product team via Pendo! This content is subject to limited support.                  

370
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can you use both link and html in a dimension?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 14, 2021 The goal is to format the text, like with color or underline, and also have a link parameter with multiple drilldown options.This works:dimension: status {type: stringhtml: <p style="color: black; background-color: lightblue; font-size:100%; text-align:center">{{ linked_value }}</p>;;link: {label: "testit"url: "https://lookerv720.dev.looker.com/looks/20"}sql: ${TABLE}.status ;; This content is subject to limited support.                  

1440
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I create a filter or SQL WHERE clause that a user can conditionally apply?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 16, 2019 If your are asking how you can code an SQL WHERE clause that a user can conditionally apply, we can do this with a combination of a yesno parameter and an sql_always_where on the explore.The use case is that it is a complex filter and you don't want the user to need to use custom filter syntax.Example: In this case, you want to have a filter that looks for aircraft model names that contain the manufacturer name. If the user selects 'yes' the filter will be applied to the WHERE clause. If they select 'no' or don't select the filter, the WHERE clause will have 1=1 (always true). parameter: turn_on_filter{type: yesno} explore: aircraft_models {sql_always_where: {% if aircraft_models.turn_on_filter._parameter_value == "true" %} ${model} LIKE '%'||${manufacturer}||'%'{% else %} 1=1{% endif %};;} This content is subject to limited support.                  

2720
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we do a "not in" SQL statement without a derived table?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 5, 2021We can do it with merged results! Create the main query and then merge to the query for the "not in" part. The second explore's fields will be null when it's "not in" so you can use a yesno table calculation to find those and remove the ones that aren't null. Keep in mind that this is limited to 5K results on either side of the merge. This content is subject to limited support.                  

290
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Peggy_BeardMember
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can two looks have the same (or duplicate) title?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 16, 2020Only if they are in different folders. If you try to create or rename a Look when there is already a Look in the folder with the same title you'll see an error message and you won't be able to save it This content is subject to limited support.                  

90
Peggy_Beard
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why does System Activity give the error data exception: invalid character value for cast`?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 16, 2017 The history explore in System Activity includes both User-Defined and LookML dashboards. Because of this, when filtering on a dashboard id, the generated SQL will convert the ID to a VARCHAR.If you try to filter on a dashboard id within a custom filter, you might get the error message data exception: invalid character value for cast (if they are on a HyperSQL back-end). To get around this, change your custom filter to be:concat(${history.dashboard_id},"") = "58"This will cast the dashboard ID to a VARCHAR in the generated SQL and filter correctly.  This content is subject to limited support.                  

560
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noahmac
Looker Staff
noahmacLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Spoofing a Dashboard with Realistic Fake Data on the Front-EndKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 20, 2019 In LookML Block development, it's common to develop a model without real data populating the underlying connection for various reasons. The database may be empty, sparse, or populated with fake data which leaves a lot to be desired; this allows for model development, but not "nice-looking" dashboards with "realistic" trends. Spoofing takes advantage of table calculations to create the fake data!Here is an example of a dashboard tile built off of a LookML model with sparse, fake data. The date range is skewed, there are many more series than this dimension would create in production, and the value range is 0 or 1.This is the same dashboard tile, after being spoofed. The date range is more relevant, we see a realistic distribution of "CLOSED" and "CANCELLED" orders, and a realistic trending of "OPEN" orders over recent weeks. This tile could pass as being modeled off of real data and better demonstrates what the tile, and dashboard, could look like to users.Meas

3770
noahmac
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noahmac
Looker Staff
noahmacLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is my Marketplace visualization blocked by CORS?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 1, 2020 This appears as a console warning or error, notifying you that the requested visualization cannot be served due to a cross site origin mismatch. Sometimes, "mime type: html/text" is listed as the resource type. Updating the visualization to serve from our CDN resolves this.Marketplace visualizations are now served from the Marketplace CDN. Great! What does that mean for me?- faster load times- fewer API calls made to the internal server- minor changes such as bug fixes can be deployed to the visualization without updating from the Marketplace > Manage page- no more CORS/cookie violations in Incognito mode/some Chrome configurationsWhat if I want to continue to use the internal server to host my Marketplace visualizations?This method is not recommended. However, strict security policies will block open access to our CDN and may necessitate hosting on the internal server. If your instance does not meet these network requirements,• HTTPS port 443 should be open

630
noahmac
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Google Sheets showing #ERROR! exporting data with lookerFetchDataKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 17, 2018 If you can successfully load their data into Sheets with lookerFetchData on the same look, it may be due to them breaching limitations on Google's side.This goes over their quota restrictions. Notably the "Custom function runtime" being 30 seconds at the time of this card being created. This content is subject to limited support.                  

380
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is my reference line giving an incorrect number on a pivoted query?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 18, 2018 Reference lines calculate based on the first column visible in a visualization in the returned dataset. So a max, min, average, or median will be based on the data in one column only, and not on every data point for that row.You can do some table calculations to manipulate this behavior, but the exact functionality you'd want still might not be possible. (Ex: You want a stacked bar chart of pivoted data, so you make a table calc to horizontally total up values from each pivot for the sake of making the reference line work. However, now the total table calc will also show in he stacked bars.)Here is the request to the product idea related. This content is subject to limited support.                  

910
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Variable not found "variable_name" in commented out liquidKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 24, 2018 Liquid being commented out in SQL by -- will still be processed as valid liquid by Looker because of the order in which Looker processes a view file.To have liquid commented out and not used, comment it out in liquid syntax as well{% comment %} some liquid stuff {% endcomment %} This content is subject to limited support.                  

460
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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