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Interactive dashboards in Looker let analysts and business users quickly explore and visualize data. A dashboard is a collection of tiles—charts, tables, text, and more—arranged on a single page. To create a new dashboard, go to the Dashboards page and click New Dashboard. Then use the Add Tile option to choose from visualizations (line charts, bar charts, gauges, tables), previously saved Looks, or text tiles for titles and descriptions. After adding a tile, you configure its data source, chart type, and display settings in the tile editor. Looker dashboards automatically refresh when underlying data updates, so you always see the latest information.
Organizing content helps users focus on key insights. You can drag and drop tiles to rearrange the layout and adjust tile sizes for emphasis. Inserting text tiles creates sections or collapsible panels, keeping related charts together and making the dashboard more readable.
Applying filters and dashboard parameters makes dashboards dynamic and user-friendly. You can add dashboard-wide filters that impact all tiles—for example, filtering by region or date—or tile-level filters for details on a specific chart. Parameters let users type in values to update queries on the fly. These interactive elements allow viewers to tailor the dashboard to their own questions without editing the dashboard itself.
Sharing and collaboration in Looker are straightforward. You can share dashboards with users or user groups by setting Viewer or Editor roles. You can also copy or fork an existing dashboard to experiment safely. Use version history to view changes, compare revisions, or revert to earlier versions. Additionally, LookML–based dashboards can be managed as code, enabling teams to track and review changes in source control.
Looker allows users to organize content effectively using folders, which can store Looks, dashboards, and subfolders. Access levels determine who can view or modify these folders and the content within them. Users with the Manage Access, Edit permission can copy, move, or delete content within a folder. Deleting a folder removes all its content, though an admin might be able to recover it from the trash if acted upon quickly.
To share insights with stakeholders, users can use the Send or Schedule features to deliver content immediately or at recurring intervals. These deliveries can go to email addresses, webhooks, or an Amazon S3 bucket. When configuring these settings, users can choose from several file formats:
Beyond scheduled reports, users can manually Download data from specific dashboard tiles or the entire dashboard for offline analysis. Admins configure the Email Domain Allowlist, which restricts the external domains to which users can send reports and alerts.
For real-time monitoring, the Alerts icon allows users to create or follow notifications based on specific data thresholds on a tile. For access on the go, the Looker mobile application lets users view dashboards and Looks directly on their mobile devices. Users can navigate to their content through the Recently Viewed and Favorites screens for quick access to high-priority data. While viewing on mobile, users can still interact with the data by temporarily changing dashboard filters to view specific segments without permanently altering the saved dashboard.
Data visualization in Looker uses different tools to present data in a visually appealing and informative manner. Utilizing measures like percentages helps express key performance indicators succinctly—for example, "percent returned items" or "percent emails resulting in a sale." In LookML, percentages are computed by creating counts for conditions and linking them through formulas, such as 100.0 * ${returned_count} / NULLIF(${count}, 0). This approach avoids errors and enhances clarity in presenting data.
To enhance analysis, Looker provides features for interactive data exploration. Users can drill down into their data to see the underlying details that make up aggregate numbers. Using sets for drill-down details lets you specify which fields to show when a user clicks on a measure’s value. This encourages a deeper understanding and manipulation of data directly from the dashboard, empowering users to take action based on detailed information.
Connecting to external databases, such as Microsoft SQL Server, is essential for creating dashboards that integrate diverse datasets. Looker provides connectors that let you create data sources based on specific databases. Users can set up connections using hostnames or IPs and engage advanced configurations like custom SQL queries for tailored data retrieval. These features ensure comprehensive data analysis by accessing relevant and diverse data sources tailored to business needs.
When setting up connections, ensuring a secure connection with protocols like TLS/SSL is vital for data integrity and privacy. Looker Studio supports encrypted connections to the server, providing confidence that sensitive business data remains protected during analysis. Using public hostnames ensures accessibility and integration of widely used databases, thereby supporting a broad range of business requirements.
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