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The Kitchen Table

Explore the product knowledge we've built up together

2111 Topics

mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Orphan Groups in LDAP settingsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 15, 2020 If you have LDAP set up and then delete your old LDAP/AD groups in your IdP, you will still see the old group listed in the Groups page. For example, Viewing Testing (Orphan 123456789) GroupIt should be handled in the same way as SAML shadow groups, where the shadow groups will still appear until users from the old group re-logs in and gets mapped to the new group, or 30 days have passed. This content is subject to limited support.                  

410
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is the difference between Most Recent Query Run At Date vs Most Recent Query DateKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 17, 2020 Most Recent Query Run At Date is the most recent query run per query ID. Essentially, it finds the most recent date that the query was run.Most Recent Query Date takes the most recent date of the History ID.So for instance, if the Most Recent Query Run at Date says 2020-11-06 but the Most Recent Query Date says 2020-10-02, this suggests that the History ID of that query was created on 2020-10-02, but the query was ran most recently on 2020-11-06.Reminder: The query ID is a unique combination of SQL text, connection and other fields. It's created the first time a SQL query is ran on a connection. The query ID can be linked to many History IDs This content is subject to limited support.                  

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

How does Looker check for dependencies between PDTs?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 28, 2020Looker does this by parsing derived table sql, sql_step, etc, looking for the ${view.SQL_TABLE_NAME} as well as required derived tables in the query of each NDTs to collect dependencies and build a directed acrylic graph. This content is subject to limited support.                  

360
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What happens when we have from and view_name together?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 21, 2019 When you use from and view_name together, from tells Looker what view to actually pull from and view_name can literally be anything. (per Paola)So for example, say we have something like this:explore: extension_hidden {  extension: required  view_name: any_name_that_i_want  join: products {    sql_on: ${products.id} = ${any_name_that_i_want.id} ;;    type: left_outer    relationship: one_to_one  }} explore: order_items_3 {  extends: [extension_hidden]  from: orders} The SQL generated in the UI will look like this:SELECT    any_name_that_i_want.id  AS `any_name_that_i_want.id`,products.brand  AS `products.brand`FROM demo_db.orders  AS any_name_that_i_wantLEFT JOIN demo_db.products  AS products ON products.id = any_name_that_i_want.id This content is subject to limited support.                  

280
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

There must be at least 750 MB of free space in the temp directoryKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 29, 2020 Looker requires at least 10GB of free disk space and for reference, we provision 50GB root partitions for our EC2 legacy instances by default.If possible, run df -h (which will display the summary of available and used disk space usage of file system). It should show the filesystems that marks off partition of their data. We should typically look for the directory /home because that is the directory where Looker is uploaded.The output should look something like so: /dev/mapper/vgsystem-lvhome 2.0G 1.8G 264M 88% /hom This indicates that there is 264M free in the /home/ volume out of 2G. This means everything in the Looker user’s home directory (and any sub-directories from there, like the Looker one) only has 2 gigs to work with, which is not very much, so you will need to upsize in order to be able to run Looker. This content is subject to limited support.                  

410
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Embed users' user attribute values are being reset in the Users PanelKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 16, 2020 If this is happening, it is likely that the embed user's user attributes are being defined in the Users panel instead of the embed URL, which is incorrect.The user attribute values for embed users should be defined in the embed URL, not in the Users panel.If you want to manage the embed user user attributes from the Looker UI, you can assign user attributes through groups.The groups_id parameter in the embed URL will determine what group the user belongs in, and once that group_ids value is set, they can assign the appropriate attribute value to that group without having to change the URL. If this is happening, it is likely that the embed user's user attributes are being defined in the Users panel instead of the embed URL, which is incorrect.The user attribute values for embed users should be defined in the embed URL, not in the Users panel.If you want to manage the embed user user attributes from the Looker UI, you can assign user attributes through groups.Th

270
mandy.chan
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.                  

440
mandy.chan
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
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Content validator showing "unknown field" for schedule filtersKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 11, 2020 When your content validator is showing "unknown field" for a field, but the field still exists in the Look, from 7.8 Looker version, the content validator now shows errors for scheduled plan filters.The clock icon will indicate that the error is due to a bad filter in the schedule. If you click on the replace/remove button, you will also see that changing the filter will only affect the schedule for that Look. You will have to recreate a new schedule with the new filter set. This content is subject to limited support.                  

1250
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to kill long running queries through the APIKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 8, 2020 To kill a long running query through the API, you can first get a list of all running queries through the `all_running_queries` endpoint and write a script where if the running time is greater than threshold, then `kill_query`.Example code here: Kill Long Running Queries If you want to kill any long running queries that are not part of a scheduled report, the all_running_queries endpoint has a source field and you can exclude the source in the example script. This content is subject to limited support.                  

1400
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why is liquid not working with fiscal timeframes?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 20, 2020 Check if you're using ._value vs ._rendered_value.Looker isn't able to output a date in the fiscal format without string formatting. For example, Looker will generate SQL to return 2020-12 and then on the front end, turn it into a string like so: FY2020-Q4. If we use ._rendered_value, it'll grab the value after front-end formatting. This content is subject to limited support.                  

230
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Scheduling single column visualization via API endpointKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 29, 2019 If we want to schedule a visualization with settings single column visualization, the API endpoint for single column visualization is "format":"inline_visualization"  This content is subject to limited support.                  

90
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we monitor the number of API requests in System Activity?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 2, 2020 The API requests under System Activity > Explore pertain only to those that involve generated SQL.If the user wants to monitor requests that don't involve generating SQL, they may be able to go to event Explore instead, but the Event Explore gets truncated after 100K rows, so only the most recent events are shown. This content is subject to limited support.                  

250
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can lots of merge results cause high CPU usageKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 28, 2020 Answer is yes!Merge results are performed in memory and not in SQL on the database. We store the results of all the source queries in memory and then merge those source queries in memory. The usage of this memory can cause the memory to be throttled (essentially meaning that memory is used up to its max).When the memory is throttled, it can trigger the garbage collector, and thus causes high CPU usage.​ This content is subject to limited support.                  

1060
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Referencing quarter with parameter after casting quarter into a stringKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 31, 2020 Users typically like to follow this article where they are required to cast the CASE WHEN into the same datatype due to their SQL dialect.When we cast quarter into a type varchar, we'll get 2016-01 returned instead of 2016-Q1. How do we get around this problem?SolutionTo do this, we can use the HTML parameter and leverage rendered_value to show the value as is on the front-end. For example:dimension: dynamic_receive_timeframe {type: stringsql:CASEWHEN {% parameter dynamic_receive_time %} = 'Quarter' THEN CAST(${order_items.returned_quarter} as char)END ;;html: {% if dynamic_receive_time._parameter_value == "'Quarter'" %}{{ returned_quarter._rendered_value }}{% endif %};;} This content is subject to limited support.                  

670
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can we set up a re-direct from a Looker-hosted instance to a self-hosted instance?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 6, 2020 No, due to security and legal reasons. This content is subject to limited support.                  

80
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
mandy.chanLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are 3rd party cookies required for public content?Knowledge Drop

Last tested; Sep 15, 2020 Looker Login UI will always require some sort of login state, even public Looks. Looker UI needs to create a session with a "fake" login for the anonymous user viewing the public content and Looker UI needs to save this login state in a browser cookie.If the content is coming from a 3rd party domain, it will require a 3rd party cookie.The best way to avoid this problem will be to change the domain name. This content is subject to limited support.                  

250
mandy.chan
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Dashboard View Count during a specific timeframeKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 22, 2020 In the Content Usage explore, we have the all-time counts (/admin/content_activity_dashboard). What if we want to know the count during a specific time frame (i.e.: 7 days) Step 1: Make a look to show the total query count for each dashboard and filter down to 30 days url-to-your instance/explore/system__activity/history?fields=dashboard.id,user.name,history.query_run_count&f[history.created_date]=7+days&f[dashboard.id]=NOT+NULL&sorts=dashboard.id+desc&limit=500&query_timezone=America%2FLos_Angeles&vis=%7B%7D  Step 2: Make a look to show a dashboard ID and their look-based titles url-to-your instance/explore/system__activity/dashboard?fields=dashboard_element.count_text,dashboard_element.count_merge_query,dashboard_element.count_lookless,dashboard.id,dashboard_element.count_look,dashboard.link&sorts=dashboard_element.count_text+desc&limit=500&query_timezone=Europe%2FDublin&vis=%7B%7D  Step 3: Merge these two looks and do

1150
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Label in x-axis is inconsistent for time (i.e.: year is appended to month)Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 6, 2021 ​​Our product has confirmed that this is a product design so that users won't get confused about the order in the x-axis (December, and then January'21). We can select other scales on the x-labels by selecting different options in Viz --> X --> Scale type). This content is subject to limited support.                  

170
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to drill and open link in the same tab / different tabKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 18, 2020 <a type="button"target="_blank" ### <-- new tabhref="/dashboards/10?Filter%20application=123&run=1"class="btn btn-primary btn-lg btn-block">Block level button</a>  For same tab, use: target="_self" This content is subject to limited support.                  

410
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Delete a project installed from Market placeKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 22, 2020 There is no button "Delete Project" in Project Settings for projects installed from Marketplace. Instead go to Marketplace --> Manage ---> Uninstall on the trash can icon. This content is subject to limited support.                  

620
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Investigate a look performance on dashboardKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 19, 2020 To check the performance time of a look in a dashboard, we have to use count on 'queryid' -- there is no direct relationship between lookid and dashboard id.We rely on queryid is because queryid tells us about a specific query that is sent to database (i.e.: we can change a query underlying in a look or in a dashboard, the queryid will change, while the lookid and dashboard id remain the same -- same address for the house but different people living there is the analogy to this case).The step would be:1/ Find the query id of your look2/ Run the explore with query id and dashboard3/ Select average time running, source, and other fields if neededExample:https://instance.looker.com/explore/system__activity/history?fields=history.min_runtime,history.max_runtime,query.id,history.real_dash_id,dashboard.link,dashboard.id,dashboard.title,history.issuer_source,history.result_source&f[look.id]=&f[dashboard.id]=&f[dashboard.title]=&f[query.id]=59244&s

1200
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why can't self-hosted instances install the listing viz from the marketplace?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 29, 2020 Self-hosted instances would see this error Could not install listing. Contact support for more information.These are looker network Requirements for self-hosted instances connecting to the Marketplace backend:HTTPS port 443 should be open or able to access SSH port 22 should be open or able to access GIT port 9418 should be open or able to accessYou should be able to access the viz you are interested in after adjusting these rules. This content is subject to limited support.                  

420
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
Lan
Community Admin
LanCommunity Admin
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Result Format in System ActivityKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jun 26, 2020 json_fe/json_detail is what we use in the browser. json_detail/json_fe is ALWAYS cached and can’t unlimited stream so json_detail_lite_stream was created so an unlimited streamer for the action_hub existedjson, json_label are download onlyThe rest are for download.gsxml is used for google sheets This content is subject to limited support.                  

580
Lan
Community Admin
1 year ago
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
kevin.dunnLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What happens if case_sensitive is applied in multiple places?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 9, 2021 Whichever case_sensitive parameter is the most granular, will take precedence. If an model has case_sensitive: no and an explore has case_sensitive: yes, the explore will be case sensitive, but other explores will not. If an explore has case_sensitive: yes and an individual field has case_sensitive: no, the field will not be case sensitive, but other fields in the explore will be. This content is subject to limited support.                  

80
kevin.dunn
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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