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The Kitchen Table

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2111 Topics

ryland.wolff
Looker Staff
ryland.wolffLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is going on when I see "nesting of 101 is too deep"?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 14, 2020 When we are creating a custom filter with more than 50 boolean evaluations we will see the error nesting of 101 is too deep. For example, we will generate this error if we have a custom filter like this:${orders.id} = 1 OR${orders.id} = 2 OR${orders.id} = 3 OR…${orders.id} = 50 OR${orders.id} = 51 With more than 50 boolean evaluations, we get too deep. We have two options to resolve this:Solution 1: LookML yesno fieldWe can create a dimension of type: yesno that will run this evaluation that we can then use as a frontend filter. This would look something like this:dimension: one_to_fifty {type: yesnosql: ${id} = 1 OR${id} = 2 OR${id} = 3…${orders.id} = 50 OR${orders.id} = 51;;} Solution 2: Use matches_filter( ) functionIf we want to avoid making any LookML developments or need to be able to modify the filters from the front end we can compress all these individual boolean evaluations into a single evaluation using the matches_filter( ) function. The logic that

7580
ryland.wolff
Looker Staff
1 year ago
ryan.dunlavy
Looker Staff
ryan.dunlavyLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are the same results sent when "results changed since last run" is selected?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 8, 2020 This can happen if the results are the same but the order of the rows is different.The "results changed since last run" option works by creating a hash of the results and checking that against the last run. If the order of the rows is different, even if the data itself is the same, the hash will be different and the schedule will send. The results taken into account include formatting and vis applied, so if hidden field changes, those changes alone will not cause a schedule to send.To avoid this, the data should be sorted in a way that makes the order constant when the data is the same. If all rows are sorted on then the order will never change.Edge CaseIf you're seeing that schedules aren't being sent out as expected, it's possible that when Looker is "checking" it is pulling from cache rather than rerunning the query to then compare states before the send. You can confirm this by looking at the Queries panel under Admin > Queries. Theoretically at whatever

1910
ryan.dunlavy
Looker Staff
1 year ago
shivanisankar
shivanisankarNew Member
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are my Quick Start Pivots not Showing Up?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Feb 9, 2021 Even if you have a value in the pivot subparameter of your query parameter, queries with pivots need to have the pivot defined in both pivots AND in dimensions.Example:query: orders_by_brand_name { dimensions: [products.brand, products.category] measures: [products.count, order_items.order_count] pivots: [products.category] description: "Orders by brand name" limit: 500} You can see that products.category is included in both the dimensions and pivots subparameter. This content is subject to limited support.                  

560
shivanisankar
1 year ago
sarah.tayeri
Looker Staff
sarah.tayeriLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Git error: "deploy aborted, operation incomplete. Verify configuration of the remote repository and retry."Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 21, 2020 If you gets an error like this:Deploy Faileddeploy dev-branch to masterdeploy aborted, operation incomplete. Verify configuration of the remote repository and retry.org.eclipse.jgit.api.errors.TransportException: git@github.com:org/repo.git: expected report for ref refs/heads/master not receivedCheck https://www.githubstatus.com/ - the error probably means github is experiencing issues. You can wait until github is back up and then try to deploy/push again :) This content is subject to limited support.                  

1460
sarah.tayeri
Looker Staff
1 year ago
S
Looker Staff
swhiteLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Redshift Schema/Table privileges — ERROR: permission denied for relationKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 24, 2018 A weird quirk that happens specifically with Redshift is that when using a schema that isn't the Public one and tables are being updated with full table drops, every time a table is dropped and re-created it doesn't inherit the access permissions of the old table.This can cause users to get errors when trying to access the relation like this: ```ERROR: permission denied for relation``` If they've GRANTED privileges on the table, they probably only granted them on that version of the table which was dropped at some point for an update.There are (at least) 2 solutions for this problem. The simplest thing to do would be to make the looker DB user an owner of the new schema. That way any tables that are created will be fully accessible by the looker user and therefore Looker.If you are hesitant to give ownership of the schema to the looker user, the other option is to log in as the super user and run this command: ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGESFOR USER schema_owning_use

27400
S
Looker Staff
1 year ago
S
Looker Staff
swhiteLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Redshift Metadata tables: stv_locks, stv_inflight, stl_error, pg_locks, pg_classKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 3, 2017 ... are tables that hold data about the database itself; tables, processes etc. DCLers commonly use these concurrently to troubleshoot hanging PDT queries or long running ones, etc. stv_inflight & stv_recents stv_inflight show the queries currently running on the database (owned by the user):SELECT * FROM stv_inflightstv_recents will show the current AND recent queries running on the DBSELECT * FROM stv_recentsand we can join in the stl_errors table to check for clues:SELECT * FROM stv_recents JOIN stl_error on stv_recents.pid = stl_error.pid stv_locks or pg_locksSELECT * from stv_locks(or pg_locks) will return the locks on any tables in Redshift that are currently active. They will disappear as soon as the lock is released.In order to see the table name you'll need to join in stv_table_perm or pg_class:SELECT * FROM stv_locks JOIN stv_tbl_perm ON stv_locks.table_id = stv_tbl_perm.idorSELECT pg_class.relname, pg_locks.* FROM pg_locks LEFT OUTER JOIN pg_clas

2870
S
Looker Staff
1 year ago
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
srinija.godavarthiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to add a new row of data with LookMLKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 17, 2020 For example, starting off with this: And wanting to add a new row of data:Use a LookML case, something like so:when: {label: “show-rss”sql: ${event_type} = ‘show-rss’ ;;}[more when blocks]when: {label: “session”sql: 1=1 ;;}For all of the existing values, you map them back to the same value, then put a fourth when block for session. The idea for the case dimension is just to create a dummy row with no data so that you can use table calcs to put the correct value in each row using functions like offset or index to pick out the specific values This content is subject to limited support.                  

5320
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
1 year ago
S
Looker Staff
swhiteLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What is connection_reg_r3 ?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 14, 2020This is a table that should exist in the scratch schema of a database with PDTs enabled on a connection.The Looker user on the database needs to have ownership of the scratch schema in order to create or access the connection_reg_3 file This content is subject to limited support.                    

2190
S
Looker Staff
1 year ago
S
Looker Staff
swhiteLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

tmp directory getting too largeKnowledge Drop

Last tested: May 10, 2019 If your instance is hosted by Looker, the .tmp directory is cleared on startup.If you host your own instance, and this directory gets too large, you can safely delete certain files in .tmp when the instance is shutdown.Admins may want to add something like this to their startup scripts:rm -rf ~/looker/.tmp/jruby* ~/looker/.tmp/looker-tmp* This will clear the .tmp folder of unneeded files on startup. This content is subject to limited support.                 

710
S
Looker Staff
1 year ago
thomas.banghart
Looker Staff
thomas.banghartLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Will a PDT build for each model that includes it?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jul 8, 2020 In most cases if one PDT view is included in multiple models which all share the same connection, the PDT is built once and is shared by multiple models.There are some cases where a PDT will be built for each model even when those models share a connection. Some reasons that warrant multiple builds:The PDT is included in multiple models that have different connections. The PDT uses a datagroup that is defined differently in different models. The PDT is included in multiple models- with different case sensitivity settings Differences in a dependency PDT between one model and another. Note: Admin > PDT will list out all the models that the PDT is shared between (the models have the same datagroup definition and the same connection).  However, as mentioned above, the PDT is built only once for one model and the rest of the models will just use that build. That is why, in the system activity PDT_builds explore, you'll see that the PDT belongs to only one of the

630
thomas.banghart
Looker Staff
1 year ago
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
srinija.godavarthiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

What does the /api/internal/session/heartbeat request mean?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 22, 2020It’s just a ping to check if the instance is up or not, this ping happens a few times a minute This content is subject to limited support.                  

660
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
1 year ago
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
srinija.godavarthiLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Getting a branch you've created on Github, into LookerKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 19, 2020 QUESTIONI've created a branch in Github, and am now wondering how I would be able to get that branch into Looker.ANSWEROne possible solution is to merge that branch with a shared branch that was created in Looker and pull from remote. This content is subject to limited support.                   

160
srinija.godavarthi
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How can I see the progress of a PDT that's building in dev mode since they don't show up in the PDT panel?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 14, 2019 There's no way to do this from Looker right now. You can potentially see it on your DB, or by selecting the Show Processes option in SQL Runner's cog menu next to the connection which should show rebuilds both in dev and prod.In order to identify dev mode PDT builds (i.e. which user kicked off a rebuild), you can look at the comments in the statement which was sent to the db. If you can access the db logs, that would have a user id. This content is subject to limited support.                   

100
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Taylor_O_Meara
Looker Staff
Taylor_O_MearaLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How to overwrite content with GazerKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 25, 2019 Gazer is a command line tool for Looker content management. You can use it to overwrite existing content with new content so that the URL of the existing content does not change with the update.How to do itSet up:Old dashboard: ID=15, name=Old Dashboard New dashboard: ID=19, name=Renovated Dashboard instance = example.looker.comRequirements:Both dashboards in the same spaceStep by stepCopy the content of the new dashboard into your current directory. gzr dashboard cat 19 --host=example.looker.com --dir ~ Then you can ls to see the new file: it should have the same name as it does in the instance (that's what "~" does), prepended with "Dashboard_[ID]_". Note that this example "Renovated Dashboard" has a space, which the terminal will store as "\ " in subsequent commands. Open the new dashboard file in any text editor. vi Dashboard_19_Renovated\ Dashboard.json Make 2 changes to the dashboard in the text editor. Remove the slug. It will look something like thi

5380
Taylor_O_Meara
Looker Staff
1 year ago
thomas.banghart
Looker Staff
thomas.banghartLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Why are marketplace/custom visualizations throwing a `document is sandboxed and lacks the 'allow-same-origin'` error?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 24, 2021 You might see the following with an error similar to DOMException: Failed to read the `cookie` property from 'Document': The document is sandboxed and lacks the 'allow-same-origin' flag when viewing a marketplace/custom visualization after updating to 7.20:​Chances are you had the "Sandboxed Custom Visualizations" labs feature enabled prior to the update and will need to disable the newly introduced in "Unsafe Custom Visualizations" legacy feature: This can also come up with a message like Uncaught DOMException: Failed to read the serviceWorker property from Navigator: Service worker is disabled because the context is sandboxed and lacks allow-same-origin flag  This content is subject to limited support.                   

1140
thomas.banghart
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I change the default location of the looker log?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Sep 6, 2019 The only option is to symlink the log directory somewhere else.By default, Looker will save the logs to looker/log . The docs show this in the directory structure, and there's a feature request for allowing logs to be stored in BigQuery/Stackdriver. This content is subject to limited support.                  

80
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When looker is running in a clustered mode, where do we store the query cache?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Aug 14, 2017 It’s on the local file system of whatever node ran the query, but node A can request it from node B.So if the user hits node A, node A looks up where the cache is (from the internal database), sees node B has it, requests it, node B sends it, and node A sends it to the user. This content is subject to limited support.                  

260
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

How many threads does the regenerator process have by default? Rather how many PDTs can it build at one time?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Apr 23, 2021 This is controlled by the Max PDT Builder Connections setting in your database connection.Docs This content is subject to limited support.                   

120
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

max_cache_age and PDTsKnowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 29, 2020 Question:If a PDT is tied to its datagroup that’s based on ETL with a max_cache_age of 24 hrs, if the ETL table doesn’t update, should that PDT rebuild after 24 hrs? Answer:No, max cache age has no effect on PDTs triggering. It only applies to cached explore/look/dashboard query results. And even then, it just drops cached results after 24 hours. It doesn't fetch new data.If you wanted a PDT to rebuild every 24 hours, use a sql_trigger_value that selects the current day. This content is subject to limited support.                  

3410
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

In clustered mode is it possible to have separate log files per node? or do they all write to the same file on the shared filesystem?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Jan 21, 2019No, in a cluster environment, each node has their own log. This content is subject to limited support.                  

60
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
Vincent
Looker Staff
VincentLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

When a new version of a PDT is currently in the process of building, do we still use the old version?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Dec 27, 2018 QuestionSay the regenerator runs the trigger query, and the trigger value of a PDT changes. Does the old table get dropped immediately or after the rebuild? What about when we change the code of a PDT, for example the sql_trigger_value , and push it to prod?AnswerIf just the trigger value has changed, and no code changes have been pushed to production, we will use the old version of the PDT until the new version is built. This will show up as "Using Old Version" in the PDT panel.If any change in the SQL code of the PDT has been pushed to prod, including the sql_trigger_value or datagroup code, we do NOT use the old version of the PDT—it is dropped immediately. Because the sql changed, the old version is no longer considered valid. The new one still has to build - that could mean a while before there is a valid PDT build in production.Good practiceIf you make a change to a PDT, build it in dev first, then when you push, that PDT will get promoted to prod. (Of c

510
Vincent
Looker Staff
1 year ago
William_Lane
Looker Staff
William_LaneLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

"Invalid Signature on SAML Response"Knowledge Drop

Last tested: May 3, 2018 This error points to an invalid certificate. The solution is to get the correct certificate from this section:<X509Certificate> ThisIsALotOfRandomCharacters </X509Certificate> And paste it into IdP Certificate in admin/saml like so:-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----ThisIsALotOfRandomCharacters -----END CERTIFICATE----- If this doesn't resolve it it's likely that the certificate is just invalid and that they need to figure that out. This content is subject to limited support.                   

1770
William_Lane
Looker Staff
1 year ago
V
Looker Staff
vishal.dharmadhikariLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

`Comparison method violates its general contract!` error when running a query.Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Oct 6, 2020 This is a pretty weird error that's popped up a couple times. This usually appears when we've pivoted data and there's a conflict in the inputs which causes a Java issue (Stack Overflow).One option to resolve this issue is to reduce the number of columns in the Explore. This content is subject to limited support.                  

2410
V
Looker Staff
1 year ago
V
Looker Staff
vishal.dharmadhikariLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Can I clone a private git repo?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Mar 4, 2021 Docs go over how to clone a public Git repository but can we do the same thing if our Git repo is private?Yes! We can do that following these steps:Create a new Blank Project instead of Clone. Click the 'Configure Git' button and use the existing private repo for the git remote. Continue with normal Project setup and follow the instructions, adding the deploy key to the repository. Create a new file in the empty project and create a commit (it can just be an empty file) Once the commit is made, you should see 'Pull and Merge other Changes.' Clicking on this will pull all the LookML from the repository into the project. You'll probably want to delete the 'dummy' file and at some point Deploy to Production. This content is subject to limited support.                 

2690
V
Looker Staff
1 year ago
V
Looker Staff
vishal.dharmadhikariLooker Staff
published in Technical Tips & Tricks

Are pbf tile formats supported in Looker when creating custom map layers?Knowledge Drop

Last tested: Nov 20, 2020Nope, we will actually need to use .mvt files. Please refer to this Community post on setting up the custom map layer. If you have .pbf files, you can use Tippecanoe to output mapbox vector tiles (.mvt) just as easily as it can do protobufs (.pbf). This content is subject to limited support.                   

520
V
Looker Staff
1 year ago

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