3.x Release Notes

Starting in Looker 3.46, items marked with a indicate changes to existing functionality that may require your attention as you update.

Looker 3.56 2016-09-25

flash_on Looks

  • Looks are now stand-alone documents. Looks have been refreshed to focus on content presentation. Some things to look for include:
    • Increased emphasis on the visualization pane
    • A collapsable Details panel, which exposes quick information about the Look including its description, creator, created and last updated times and scheduling and dashboard information
    • On-Look configuration options including scheduling, deleting, and access control
    • An on-Look edit overly, where the query and Look title can be modified
    • Reset Look and Explore from Here links, which allow users to play with the query and dig deeper without affecting others' consumption of saved content.

Dashboards

  • On-Dashboard Editing. When in edit mode, users can now modify tiles directly from the dashboard.
  • Added a message on dashboards over 25 tiles informing users that performance may be impacted.
  • LookML Dashboard notes will transfer to user-defined dashboards after being converted.

Visualizations and the Explore Page

  • Filtering on a dimension by clicking on a value in the results data table or a table visualization now adds that dimension as a filter on the current page rather than refreshing the entire page. This disables such dimensional filtering on dashboard table visualization elements.
  • Added an Unpin from Zero option to allow charts to focus on the area for which data exist rather than showing the full scale starting at zero.

LookML

  • Introduced ${EXTENDED}, which allows you to refer to refer to both the object being extended and the extension object at the same time. Learn more.
  • Renamed SUPER* to EXTENDED* for lists. Learn more.
  • Persistent derived tables built in Development Mode will now always have a maximum persist_for of 24 hours. Learn more.
  • The LookML generator will now add a description parameter to freshly generated view files.

Dialects

  • BigQuery. Introduced initial support for BigQuery Standard SQL. Includes support for the query size estimator and symmetric aggregates.
  • Impala. Added support for persistent derived tables.
  • DataVirtuality. Fixed an issue that could cause symmetric aggregates to generate invalid SQL.
  • MS SQL:
    • Fixed an issue where a field could not use more than 30 characters.
    • Introduced a static dialect (Microsoft SQL Server 2005) to connect to the deprecated 2005 version of MS SQL.
  • Snowflake. Fixed an issue where certain combinations of date filters incorrectly returned no results.

Admin

  • On the Groups page, added the ability to filter on the list of users within a Group.
  • A user's page will now display the Reset Password link below the send button.
  • Groups on the Groups page are now ordered alphabetically.
  • Users on the Users page are sorted alphabetically, with null user names at the end of the list.

General Tweaks and Bug Fixes

  • Updated the 404 page across Looker to reflect that the page could be a result of missing content or a lack of permissions.
  • Updated Save, Copy, and Move dialogs that display Space or Dashboard trees to show the Spaces a user may save to.
  • Groups may now be set in an SSO Embed URL.
  • Cursors will now focus on the first field any modal.
  • Fixed an issue where the Look Validator could take longer than normal to return results.
  • Disabled the "Open in Browser" option when the file format is Excel.
  • Fixed an issue where not all subSpaces would load in the Save, Copy, or Move dialog.
  • Fixed an issue where the Get Dashboard LookML explore option did not generate all dimensions and measures.
  • Improved the error message when users cannot move content into Spaces to which they don't have access.
  • Fixed a series of color picker-related issues.
  • Fixed an issue where secondary, tertiary, and further pivot sorts were not respected on the Explore page.
  • Fixed an issue where inputting text into the visualization configuration boxes could be jittery.
  • Fixed an issue where IE11.0 users could not click on the Choose Field drop-down in the dashboard filter modal.
  • Fixed an issue where start_date and end_date evaluated to null when using the "is on the day" date filter option.

Looker 3.54 2016-08-28

Content Management & Spaces

  • Access Controls for Spaces: Introduce the ability to manage who can access various Spaces and at what level. Learn more.
  • Groups for User & Content Management: A new Groups paradigm governs collections of users. Groups may be given access to Spaces as a unit. Groups can be set up automatically through existing authentication methods like LDAP and SAML. Learn more.

Looker Design

Updates to Mobile Dashboards for easier viewing, including:

  • Larger tile size
  • Improved filter usability
  • Updated navigation for improved screen real estate

LookML

  • Added new timeframes including second, millisecond, and microsecond. Learn more.
  • Added the ability to filter on the second timeframe. Learn more.
  • The LookML Validator will now correctly warn when order_by_field is declared on a non-dimension field or references a measure. Learn more.
  • Introduced a legacy feature to prevent dimensions from referencing measures. Learn more.
  • The LookML Validator will now correctly warn when filter fields are declared with type: time. Learn more.

Explore

  • Added the ability to copy values in a column of the data table. The copied values will be accepted into the filter input box if pasted there.
  • Added the ability to replace field references in table calculations and custom filters with the Look Validator. Learn more.
  • Filters now default to the same interval as the timeframe being filtered on. For example, when filtering on "created_hour", the filter will default to "hours" instead of "days".
  • Descriptions for dimension groups now appear at the dimension group name level rather than repeated for each dimension. Learn more about descriptions. Learn more about dimension groups.

Visualizations

  • Added a visualization option to reverse the direction of the x- or y-axis.
  • Added the ability to hide totals on the table visualization.
  • Reference lines now leverage a color picker instead of hex value inputs.
  • Charts now use the null symbol (∅) rather than the string "null".
  • Pie charts and the associated legend will now be centered as a unit instead of centering the chart itself.

Scheduling & Downloading

  • Resource Manager for Scheduled and Downloaded Tasks
    • By default, the system will process downloading and rendering tasks in pairs. Instance administrators will see a new source in the query panel called "renderer".
    • These changes should result in fewer timeouts on rendered content and reduce impact on the Looker instance.

General Tweaks and Bug Fixes

  • Tweaks to Spaces
    • Improved the load time of the Spaces page.
    • Improved the loading time of the Space picker in the Save, Copy and Move modals.
    • Ensured that the title of Spaces properly propagate to the browser tab.
    • Updated the styling of the Edit Space modal to match other modals.
    • Cursors now focus in the first editable field in Space modals.
  • Retired support for Internet Explorer 10. Learn more.
  • Added a new permission to allow users to view drill overlays on dashboards without being able to explore the data.
  • Requesting a password reset link from the login page now offers a confirmation when the password has successfully been reset.
  • Introduced a new keyboard shortcut (ctrl+shift+d) to enter Development Mode.
  • Standardized the presentation of the closed Filters section on Explores and Dashboards.
  • In the "Choose Field..." drop-down in the dashboard filter edit modal, values will now respect associated view labels.
  • Added built-in support for creating local version control.
  • Improved the efficiency of the LookML Validator.
  • Improved query killing for Presto versions 0.133 and above.
  • Added explanatory language for the Temp Database on the edit connections page.
  • Ensured that datatype: date fields are filtered properly in certain dialects.
  • Fixed an issue where symmetric aggregates removed newlines on most dialects.
  • Fixed a bug where validating LookML could crash an instance.
  • Fixed an issue where totals could be omitted when pivots are sorted with a column limit.
  • Fixed an issue that could result in mismatched colors between titles and text in single value visualizations.
  • Fixed an issue where default color palettes may not apply everywhere.
  • Fixed an issue where sections of the Field Picker could not be expanded or collapsed when using Firefox.
  • Fixed an issue where timeframes produced a LookML error when using can_filter: false.
  • Fixed an issue where LookML dashboards with text objects wouldn't download.
  • Fixed an issue where reassigning ownership of scheduled plans could cause recipients to be removed.
  • Fixed an issue where the can_filter parameter could allowing filtering when interacting with drilling.
  • Fixed an issue where a filter could switch to matches (advanced) after a query is run.
  • Fixed an issue where timezones could change on drill-down.
  • Fixed an issue where filter values were reliably removed from the filter input boxes on the explore page.
  • Fixed an issue where measure sorts could remain in the query after the measure was removed.
  • Fixed an issue where SQL did not reliably generate on the SQL tab on the Explore page.
  • Fixed an issue where a user's Space could hang if the user lacked access to certain Spaces.
  • Fixed an issue where editing filters on a dashboard copied from a deleted user's space could produce a Validation Failed error.

Looker 3.52 2016-07-31

Looker Design

flash_on Redesigned Navigation Bar

  • Widened available working canvas to expand real estate for working with tables and visualizations and accommodate landscape viewing on additional devices.
  • Simplified navigation by removing icons and focusing organization on user actions. The navigation includes:
    • Browse: Have a look at existing content; start from existing Looks and dashboards
    • Explore: Start a new query
    • Develop: Enter the LookML editor, the SQL Runner, and turn Development Mode on/off
  • Increased the available Help and reorganized the menu. The help menu includes:
    • Search for Docs and Discourse
    • Links to official Documentation and Looker Discourse
    • Information about the current Looker release (including release notes and number)
    • Chat support with Looker's Department of Customer Love (only available to developers and instance admins)
  • Menu cleanup. Tweaked a number of menus and lists in order to facilitate navigation and unify design.
    • Alphabetized a number of lists including Roles, Connections, and Explores in the dashboard Filters modal
    • Left aligned gear menu items and appended "..." to options that launch another modal

Visualizations

flash_on Series Tab in Visualization Editor

The Series tab introduces an improved interface for editing the color, name, and type of a series. Everything that had been modified using key-value pairs in the Style tab's free text boxes can be found in the Series tab, which has replaced the Style tab for cartesian charts.

Learn more: Column charts / Bar charts / Scatter charts / Line charts / Area charts

Explore

  • Data tables now display column totals when row limit is reached. Learn more.
  • Explore descriptions are now displayed in the Explore drop-down on the top navigation bar.

Scheduling & Downloading

  • Stand-alone Permission to View Scheduled Information. The see_schedules permission allows access to the scheduled plan and the scheduler history panels. Learn more.
  • Improved Layout for Pivoted Downloads. Downloaded .csv, .html, .md, .txt, and .xlsx files now display one row per pivoted dimension to more closely match the display in Looker. If you have processes that rely on a single header row, please make use of the "Single Row Table Headers" legacy feature. Learn more.
  • Clarified the error that users receive when Looker is unable to render PDFs due to PhantomJS not being installed.
  • Clarified the error that users receive if they are a recipient of a scheduled plan made by a user who has been deleted or disabled.

LookML & Development Environment

  • Autogenerated Context as SQL Comments for PDTs. When generating PDTs, Looker will issue a comment to indicate the model, view, ID of the user generating the table (if available), whether or not the user is in Developer Mode, and the instance slug. Learn more.
  • Updated the Look Validator to improve design and include the ability to replace the name of fields, views, explores, and models regardless of the error. Learn more.
  • Fast File Switching. The LookML development IDE now instantly switches between files and does not require a full page reload.
  • Truncated SQL Runner Table List. The SQL Runner limits the table preview list to 500 to limit browser impact.
  • Completely removed the scoping parameter. Learn more.

Dialects

  • BigQuery:
    • Fixed an issue where Symmetric Aggregates could be incorrectly calculated in the presence of negative numbers.
    • Improved the efficiency of the week timeframe.
    • Improved the behavior of measures in fanout_on fields.
  • Snowflake:
    • Added information about whether PDTs are functioning.
  • Hive:
    • Hive version 1.2 is the minimum supported version (rather than Hive version 0.13).
    • Hive now uses LIKE instead of regular expressions for string filtering.
  • Spark:
    • Looker now uses HiveQL 1.2 instead of HiveQL 0.13 syntax.
  • Presto:
    • Incorporated the standard Presto JDBC driver (version 0.149). Learn more.
  • DataVirtuality:
    • Added an SSL option in Looker's connection panel.
    • Fixed an issue where DataVirtuality didn't properly load error messages.
  • MS SQL:
    • Updated the JDBC driver to v4.2. Note that SQL Server 2005 will no longer be supported.

General Tweaks and Bug Fixes

  • API (beta) Changes:
    • Ensured that JSON format will return the values of type: number fields as numbers rather than strings. Learn more.
    • Replaced the run_async and create_query_and_run_async routes. API users should transition to the create_query_task route.
  • Performance and Stability Tweaks:
    • Improved performance when fetching cached results.
    • Reduced memory usage when reading from and writing to the query cache.
    • Changed the way Looker connects to internal MySQL databases to make the connection more robust.
  • Visualization Bug Fixes:
    • Fixed an issue where maps did not work with hidden columns when table calculations were present and all measures were hidden.
    • Fixed an issue where right padding on charts could be misaligned.
    • Fixed an issue where the value format of table calculations did not appear on the y-axis of a visualization.
    • Fixed an issue where time label format would only work with a label rotation value.
    • Fixed an issue where visualizations would render empty if a min or max y-axis value was used with a log scale type.
    • Fixed an issue where a chart warning could push the x-axis out of view.
  • Addressed an issue where different Looker systems could process and sort results in different orders across various areas (dashboards, Explores, downloads, etc.).
  • Fixed an issue where the visual indication that a filter input box was looking for suggestions failed to appear or continue to disappeared while running.
  • Fixed an issue where labels were inconsistently truncated on PDF downloads.
  • Text tiles on LookML Dashboards no longer produce "Element must specify an explore" warnings.
  • Fixed an issue where gear menus from fields in tables would overlay empty state messages on the data table.
  • Fixed an issue where the default value for a dashboard filter was not properly integrating with other filters if set up to do so.
  • Fixed an Issue where embedded dashboards could return empty results on the first run.
  • Fixed an issue where custom filters using yesno dimensions could produce incorrect SQL.
  • Fixed a bug where extended explores incorrectly returned the error "ignore unexpected list of fields in explore".

Looker 3.50 2016-07-05

flash_on Legacy Feature Updates

The following 3 features are being turned off and will be removed entirely in 3.50:

  • $$ substitution
  • Joins declared in views
  • LookML "scoping" Parameter

Details on how to migrate off these features can be found in this Community topic.

Visualizations

Trend Lines [Labs] and Reference Lines

  • Added the ability to specify the location of reference line text. Options are Left, Right, Center. Learn more.

  • Added the ability to specify trend lines.

    • Options include linear, exponential, logarithmic, and moving average.
    • Moving average type has options for 7, 14 and 28 as it is typically used for days.
    • Any number of trend lines can be added.
    • Each trend line can be set to a specific series.

    See documentation: Area Charts - Bar Charts - Column Charts - Line Charts - Scatter Charts

Plot Region Data on Interactive Maps

  • U.S. Zipcode Tabulation Areas and U.S. Counties Map Layers. These new map layers can be used on the interactive map. The zipcode field type automatically works with the interactive map. Learn more.
  • TopoJSON Map Layers on Interactive Maps.
  • All existing TopoJSON map_layers in LookML now work on interactive maps, including built in maps like Countries, U.S. States, and U.K Postcodes, and the new Zipcode and County layers. Learn more.
  • Added a heatmap opacity setting and now map labels can show above or below the heatmap. Learn more.

Explore

Custom Filters

See documentation: Custom Filters & Looker Expressions

  • Full control over filter logic via ANDs, ORs, and parentheses
  • Access to same functions available in table calcs
  • Can be used in conjunction with regular filters
  • Contextual help pane

Table Calculations Enhancements

See documentation: Table Calculations & Looker Expressions

Improved Explore URLs

The explore page URL now has a shorter, more stable, format and the URL does not contain filter values or other data. Learn more.

Powered By Looker

  • Embedded Explore pages now broadcast a JavaScript event whenever the page state changes. Enables the ability to build a custom saving mechanism for embed users. Learn more.
  • Support for wildcard subdomains in the embed domain whitelist. This makes it much easier to whitelist groups of embedded domains.
  • Fixed an issue where downloading a PDF from an embedded dashboard did not work.
  • Fixed an issue where filter values on embedded dashboards did not wrap properly.

Scheduler

  • Improved unsubscribe flow for scheduled content.
  • Text objects on Dashboards will now appear in Dashboard PDFs.
  • When scheduling content, the To section now accepts comma-separated lists of email addresses.
  • The schedule reassignment modal (accessed via admin/scheduled_plans ) now includes the name of the Look or Dashboard.

LookML

  • **Added date_start and date_end to date filters**. This allows the beginning and end dates in a date filter to be explicitly referred to in LookML. This is useful for table wildcard functions in BigQuery or partitioned columns in Hadoop.
  • PDT Trigger Check / Regenerator can now rebuild tables concurrently. See documentation.

Dialects

See dialect support level definitions.

  • Changes to Database Connection Credentials. Looker will no longer pass authentication information through the driver's connection string and will instead pass credentials as part of the connection properties. Learn more.