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The Kitchen Table

Explore the product knowledge we've built up together

2111 Topics

noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I use more than one dimension in suggest_dimension?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 21, 2019 You can only supply one field to this parameter. To get values from more than one field create a derived table, union all the columns you want suggested, and then use this new dimension as the suggester. Remember to select a key in this as well, because you must join this view in the explore in order for it to work.# SQL for the derived tableSELECT id, field_1 AS suggestions FROM table1UNIONSELECT id, field_2 AS suggestions FROM table1 # suggest dimension must be fully scopedsuggest_dimension: derived_table_view_name.suggestions  This content is subject to limited support.                   

560
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
nathaniel.thompson
Moderator
nathaniel.thompsonModerator
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How LookML constants interact with Project ImportKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 15, 2020 TL;DR: LookML constants cannot be "passed" between projects. We can only change the values of the constants defined in the imported project. IntroConstants can be created in a LookML project for defining a value to be reused throughout that project. But sometimes, that LookML project is imported into another LookML project, either as a local or a remote dependency. The behavior of constants–when they are from an imported project–can be confusing. This is because constants themselves cannot be imported, whereas LookML files can be imported/included from another project. This behavior is explained in more detail below. The export and override_constant parametersFor the explanation moving forward, we'll use Project A to refer to the project being imported into another LookML project, Project B.exportWhen defining a LookML constant in a project's manifest file, you can add an export parameter to a constant. The export parameter is added to the original definition

2690
nathaniel.thompson
Moderator
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Git branches showing up for other developers after being deletedKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 18, 2018 Each developer can have their own local version of any branch if they checkout another branch. If developer X deletes branch A, and developer Y had checked it out, the other developer will still have branch A. If they then push it to production, it will be resurfaced in remote for everyone.If developers want to clean up their branches, each individual will have to delete the agreed upon branches to remove so they can't be resurfaced.There is a ​feature request for having an option to forcefully delete a branch across developers This content is subject to limited support.                 

950
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Download Look as PDFKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 10, 2018 It is a feature request to export PDF's for individual Looks. You can, however:Download the Look as a PNG. Save the Look on a dashboard and download the dashboard as a PDF. This content is subject to limited support.                   

2010
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
noah.kawasakiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When I run ./looker start nothing happensKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 5, 2019 If you went through the Migrating HyperSQL to MySQL process, then you should have added exit to the second line of your start up script. Just remove that and you should be able to start up Looker again. This content is subject to limited support.                  

80
noah.kawasaki
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noahmac
Looker Staff
noahmacLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I examine the query response objects?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 29, 2020 ​​If you're curious about:what's inside the query response object which field type a table calculation resolves to how the data object is structuredyou might be interested in the Viz Inspector: https://github.com/noahamac/viz-inspector​This visualization outputs to the screen the visualization objects which are accessible via the custom viz api: data, queryResponse, config, and details. You can copy to clipboard and expand/collapse the object.​ This content is subject to limited support.                 

570
noahmac
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noahmac
Looker Staff
noahmacLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How do I add Custom Visualizations to Looker?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 13, 2020 ​More Reading:Visualization LookML object syntax: https://app.getguru.com/card/cpM55dxi/Custom-Visualizations-in-LookML\​Network Requirements for On-Prem Instances Connecting to Marketplace: https://app.getguru.com/card/i8gzyyeT/Network-Requirements-for-OnPrem-Instances-Connecting-to-Marketplace​What’s in a Marketplace Visualization? https://app.getguru.com/card/c5Gj5X7i/Whats-in-a-Marketplace-Visualization​Examples of repos that can be installed through Marketplace:https://github.com/ContrastingSounds/vis-report_tablehttps://github.com/noahamac/viz-inspectorhttps://github.com/looker/viz-multiple_value-marketplace​If nothing else works: https://github.com/looker/custom_visualizations_v2  This content is subject to limited support.                  

940
noahmac
Looker Staff
1 year ago
noahmac
Looker Staff
noahmacLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Network Requirements for Instances Connecting to MarketplaceKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 22, 2020 These are our network requirements for instances connecting to our Marketplace backend:• HTTPS port 443 should be open or able to access https://marketplace-api.looker.com• SSH port 22 should be open or able to access https://github.com• GIT port 9418 should be open or able to access https://github.comYou should be able to access the content you're interested in after adjusting these rules. This content is subject to limited support.                 

130
noahmac
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

BIGQUERY (Error): Cannot Connect (Connection Refused) on BigQueryKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 21, 2020 Note: This card only applies to BQ connections going through a proxy. For connection refused in all other scenarios, see this postThis article explains that this error can be caused by a proxy. If you host your own instance, then we'll want to make sure that Looker is allowed to talk to BigQuery.First, make sure that these outbound connections are allowed:accounts.google.com:443www.googleapis.com:443ping.looker.com:443license.looker.com:443 Next, let's make sure that Looker's REST calls to BigQuery are going through the proxy. You can ensure this by adding the following two lines to the very top of your startup script:unset http_proxy unset https_proxy Then, modify the JAVAARGS variable to include these 5 arguments.JAVAARGS="-Dhttp.proxyHost=myproxy.example.com -Dhttp.proxyPort=8080 -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=127.0.0.1|localhost -Dhttps.proxyHost=myproxy.example.com -Dhttps.proxyPort=8080" The first two variables make sure that JRuby calls (both for http and https)

1740
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why isn't embed working in Safari? Are there browser settings we need to set for SSO embed content?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 21, 2021 Some browsers have their nuances.Safari and firefoxSafari disables third party cookies by default if the user has not previously visited the host of the iframe, so users will have to enable third party cookies in their privacy settings by disabling the setting Prevent Cross-Site Tracking. (This also applies for Safari Mobile.) Firefox has also started blocking third party cookies by default. If admins do not want to have their users manually enable third party cookies, it may require a change to the domain name of your Looker instance (like looker.x.com instead of x.looker.com) to match that of the embed application so that Looker's cookies are no longer considered "third-party." Please contact your Looker account team to inquire about this option.ChromeIn Chrome, third party cookies are enabled by default in regular windows, so issues with browser settings impacting SSO embed are not as common as in Safari, although issues related to third party cookie settin

43880
paola
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.                   

390
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Does a clustered environment help with scheduling?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 21, 2019Requiring lots of concurrent schedules is a great use case for a clustered environment. Each node will have its one schedule limit. So, for example, So if there is the default 3 schedule threads in a 3 node cluster, there can be 9 concurrent schedule threads. This content is subject to limited support.                  

190
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What happens to SAML shadow groups when disabling SAML?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 23, 2019 Nothing immediately, but as of Looker 6.14, a shadow group will go away 31 days after the last login of a user in that group.After Looker 6.14:Each group is intended to persist as long as some user is a member of the group. The change made is intended to deal with two loopholes:1) the code was previously only checking for orphan groups to be deleted when some user logs in for that authentication system. So, if you turn off LDAP and start using SAML it would never clean up the LDAP groups.2) because it is common for some users to stop logging into looker - and the group membership is reset for a given user only when they login, there could be groups that would seem to always have a user because that user hadn't logged for so long. We've set a 31 day limit such that any user who had not logged for a long time would automatically lose membership in such a group and thus there is a better chance that the group will eventually get cleaned up.So Looker's behaviour i

1840
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
paola
Looker Staff
paolaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I create an Embed user from the API?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 1, 2020Yes, as of Looker 6.24, there is a create_sso_embed_url API endpoint. Once the embed URL is created, accessing it will create the embed user. This content is subject to limited support.                  

500
paola
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can a dashboard filter be applied to multiple fields?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 6, 2021 Yes- if you use the sql: parameter on a filter field like this: filter: datefil {type: datesql: {% condition %} ${created_date} {% endcondition %} and {% condition %} ${users.created_date} {% endcondition %};;}Note that since we are referencing another view, every explore using the view where this field is declared must either join the referenced view or exclude this field.  This content is subject to limited support.                 

660
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Is data downloaded from a dashboard in the same timezone as the dashboard setting?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 16, 2019 If you download from the dashboard menu, the data will be in the same timezone as the dashboard setting.If you download from an individual tile of the dashboard, the data will be in the timezone of the saved query tile. This content is subject to limited support.                  

510
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What permission is required to create a project?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 12, 2018The manage_models permission is required to create a project. This permission is not in the Developer permission set for the Developer role. This content is subject to limited support.                   

230
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What format do state names need to be in for the map_layer_name: us_states to workKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 7, 2019 According to our documentation, "us_states - Accepts full state names and two-letter state abbreviations."In testing, the state name must be in Capitalized format like "Florida". All caps like "FLORIDA" or all lower case like "florida" will not be mapped.A user who had the names in all caps came up with thissql: concat(upper(substring(${TABLE}.state,0,1)),lower(substring(${TABLE}.state,1)));;State values with whitespace surrounding also won't be mapped - you can use a TRIM() function around the state column to ensure this is not an issue. This content is subject to limited support.                  

900
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Do conditional format fields need to be numeric?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 5, 2019 Yes! For table visualization conditional formatting, the fields must be numeric.If you have strings or another data type, consider using HTML in your LookML as in this Community article, or go +1 this Feature Request. This content is subject to limited support.                  

8270
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
Peggy_BeardLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are there duplicate groups with a 'shadowing saml config group xx' extension after the group name?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 1, 2019The SAML group is appended with the 'shadowing saml config group xx' , which will show up in the Group name in the Looker Admin Groups. When a SAML config is updated, the groups are re-mapped. Each update will increment the XX number. As long as there are members in the prior group (because those users have not logged in again), the group will continue to exist. This content is subject to limited support.                  

190
Peggy_Beard
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

If you have a templated filter in a derived table and you reference that table in another derived table, can you pass the filter value through?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 10, 2019 No, you would have to create the templated filter in your new derived table. The DT doesn’t “store” the templated filter, it’s just part of the sql.​ This content is subject to limited support.                   

290
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can a sql trigger value return more than 1 row, and 1 column?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 16, 2019 According to docs, the sql_trigger_value will only consider the first row and column in the SQL you write. It is recommended to have your trigger value return only 1 value, to prevent confusion and protect non-streaming SQL dialects from loading large result sets into memory.If you really want more than 1 column considered by your sql trigger value, you can concatenate the columns, which will cause it to trigger if there is a change in any of these columns. This content is subject to limited support.                 

170
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

PDT rebuild error: `SQL Error in CREATE TABLE as SELECT: This connection has been closed`Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 5, 2019 This is likely a timeout error.If the PDT is persisted with the persist_for parameter then this PDT can only be built by querying it via an explore/look/dashboard and the build is subject to Looker's 60 minute proxy timeout.If you have determined that this PDT is timing out due to Looker's proxy timeout, consider persisting using a sql_trigger_value instead. PDTs persisted with a sql_trigger_value are generally built by the regenerator and are not affected by Looker's 60 minute proxy timeout. This content is subject to limited support.                   

690
quinn.morrison
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

400
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
quinn.morrisonLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

If a user within a group email address unsubscribes from a schedule, will the affect other recipients in this email group?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 7, 2020 Yes, this will unsubscribe all recipients in the group email from the schedule. This is mentioned in Docs, and there is a Community post on handling/monitoring unsubscriptions.​ This content is subject to limited support.                   

730
quinn.morrison
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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