Prepare and test your skills
Prepare and test your skills
Build and Customize Dashboards is the process of turning queries and charts into reusable, interactive presentations that answer business questions. After data is queried and charted in an Explore, results can be saved as a Look (opens in a new tab) or assembled into a dashboard to organize information in a logical way. Dashboards combine visualizations, data sources, and interactive elements so stakeholders can explore the same business question from different angles.
A Look is the saved result of a query that can be viewed later or added to dashboards. The flow moves from an Explore query to a saved Look, and then from the Look to one or more dashboard tiles. Saving a Look preserves both the underlying query and its chart, so the same analysis can be reused without rebuilding it. Looks provide the building blocks for dashboards that need consistent definitions and visualizations.
A process flow showing an Explore query branching to a saved Look, which feeds one or more dashboard tiles, plus a direct path saving the Explore as a new dashboard tile.
A user-defined dashboard is a dashboard that is created and maintained through the Looker user interface. Creation starts with a new dashboard, and then dashboard tiles are added from saved Looks or Explore queries to present related information together. This UI-based approach lets dashboard builders meet specific business requirements without writing code.
Once tiles are on the dashboard, the layout and content can be customized to improve clarity and analysis:
The dashboard depends on its tiles for data, while the layout and settings control how viewers read and navigate the combined story.
Dashboard filters and cross-filters are the interactive elements that let one dashboard serve many business questions. Dashboard filters are added to a user-defined dashboard and then configured to control the data shown across tiles, and they can later be edited or deleted as requirements change. Cross-filtering extends interactivity by letting viewers select data in one tile to explore related results, with support for enabling, creating, sharing, drilling on, and removing cross-filters.
Because filters sit above individual tiles, a single viewer selection flows from the filter control to each connected tile. Dashboard builders use filters when viewers need to narrow results by common business dimensions, such as date, region, or product, without opening separate dashboards.
A LookML dashboard is a dashboard that is created and maintained in LookML code rather than in the user interface. The builder defines the dashboard in LookML and adds visualizations to it using LookML parameters, including element types and reference lines. This code-based approach keeps the dashboard definition in version-controlled project files alongside the data model.
User-defined dashboards and LookML dashboards share the same goal but differ in how they are built and maintained:
| Dashboard type | How it is created | How it is maintained |
|---|---|---|
| User-defined dashboard | Created in the Looker user interface with dashboard tiles | Rearranged, resized, and edited in the user interface |
| LookML dashboard | Built in LookML code with visualizations defined as elements | Updated by editing LookML dashboard and element parameters |
The two types can be converted in either direction to support different workflows. A LookML dashboard can be copied into a folder as a user-defined dashboard, while a user-defined dashboard can be used as a source to generate LookML for a LookML dashboard.
Exam tip: Copy a LookML dashboard to a folder to get a user-defined dashboard; generate LookML from a user-defined dashboard to get a LookML dashboard.
A Looker dashboard (opens in a new tab) is a single page that brings together multiple saved queries as visualization or text tiles for a quick view of related content. Data flows from an Explore query into a tile, and from one or more tiles into the dashboard where viewers can see them together. Dashboards can be static collections or interactive pages where viewers filter, drill, and explore the data behind each tile.
A Looker dashboard contains tiles, filters, and page elements that help viewers understand the data. Dashboard tiles display the results of queries as charts, tables, single values, or text, while dashboard filters sit at the top of the page and limit what all connected tiles show. Page elements include the dashboard title, navigation breadcrumb, last-updated indicator, reload icon, and three-dot menu for actions like downloading, copying a link, or adding the dashboard to a board.
A user-defined dashboard is a dashboard created and edited through the Looker user interface and stored in a folder. A LookML dashboard is a dashboard defined in a YAML-based file with the extension .dashboard.lookml that provides version control, and it can be converted to or from a user-defined dashboard. To view a dashboard, a person needs the View access level for its folder, the see_user_dashboards permission, and access to the models behind its tiles.
A blank user-defined dashboard is created from a folder where you have the Manage Access, Edit access level:
A dashboard can also be created directly from a Look or an Explore by opening the Look or Explore, clicking Save, and choosing As a new dashboard. In the save window, you enter a title that applies to both the dashboard and the first tile, select a folder on the Settings tab, and choose whether to use the Look or Explore filters as dashboard filters. The Look or Explore is then saved as the first query tile on the new dashboard.
Dashboard tiles are the building blocks that display queries, Looks, text, or custom apps on a dashboard. The first tile added to a dashboard takes up the full width of the page, and additional tiles are sized to one-third of the width and placed in rows underneath. Tiles can then be moved by dragging, resized, renamed, or edited to change the visualization or underlying query. New tiles built from the same Explore as an existing dashboard filter automatically receive that filter.
| Tile type | What it holds | Choose when |
|---|---|---|
| Query tile | Independent query that belongs to the dashboard | You want the tile to stay unchanged if the original Look changes or is deleted, and to avoid cluttering folders with extra Looks |
| Look-linked tile | Query linked to a saved Look in the same folder | You want one Look to feed multiple dashboards so every linked tile updates when the Look changes |
| Text tile | Heading, description, or formatted section built with Text or Markdown | You want to label sections, explain a metric, or guide viewers through the page |
| Extension tile | Custom application called an extension that runs inside the tile | You want interactive custom functionality beyond a chart or table |
Exam tip: A query tile is independent and survives if its source Look is deleted, while a Look-linked tile stays connected and shows an error if its source Look is deleted.
Dashboard filters make a Looker dashboard interactive by letting viewers narrow all connected tiles to the data they care about. A dashboard creator adds a filter in edit mode, configures which field it controls, and then uses the Tiles to Update setting to choose which tiles the filter applies to or sets a tile to Do Not Filter. Viewers can temporarily change filter values on the dashboard and click Reload data to refresh results from the database without changing the saved dashboard.
Cross-filtering is an ad hoc form of filtering where a viewer clicks a data point in one tile and all other tiles automatically filter to that value. Cross-filters cannot be saved to the dashboard, but they can be shared by sharing the URL of the cross-filtered dashboard. Tiles can also support drilling, which lets a viewer tap or click a data point to see more granular detail, open the underlying Explore rows, follow links to other Looks or dashboards, run data actions such as sending email or Slack messages, or view custom tooltips.
Customizing a Looker dashboard means arranging tiles, organizing content, and styling user-facing elements so business questions are easy to answer. Creators work in edit mode, where a blue toolbar provides Add, Filters, Settings, Quick layout, Style, Cancel, and Save options for changing the page. Quick layout applies a cohesive tile arrangement to a page or to each tab, while dragging the six-dot handle moves a tile and grid guides show width, height, and percent of page width during placement.
User-facing customization includes text tiles for headings and explanations, tabs for grouping related tiles, and themes that change font family, text color, background color, button color, and tile color. Tabs help break a large dashboard into focused views, and buttons can be added to help viewers jump to a specific tab with breakdown detail. Because more tiles and complex visualizations require more browser resources, dashboards with slow rendering should be split into multiple smaller dashboards with fewer elements on each.
Manage Dashboard Delivery and Sharing in Looker (opens in a new tab) is the process of getting dashboard insights to the right people with the right access. The Looker Scheduler sends instant, one-time deliveries or periodic, recurring deliveries called schedules from dashboards, Looks, and Explore queries to destinations inside and outside Looker. Sharing also depends on folder and data permissions, which decide who can view content and what data they can see when they receive it.
Scheduling email reports is the use of the Looker Scheduler to send dashboard content to email on demand or on a recurring schedule. A schedule can be set to run after a datagroup has been triggered, managed the cache, and rebuilt relevant persistent derived tables (PDTs), so recipients receive fresh data after the underlying data update completes. Delivery also depends on permissions and data access, because a user can only schedule content for models and data they are allowed to see.
The built-in delivery destinations supported by the Looker Scheduler are:
Additional destinations, such as Slack, are available through the Looker Action Hub after an admin enables the integration and grants access. Dashboards have their own formatting options for delivery:
Looks and Explores use different formats, including CSV, XLSX, several JSON variants, Text, and HTML. To send an Explore in PDF or PNG format, save it first as a Look and then add that Look to a dashboard and schedule the dashboard.
Email delivery is controlled by three related permissions that build on each other:
| Permission | Scope | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| schedule_look_emails | Model specific | Schedule Looks, dashboards, and visualized queries to email, limited by the Email domain allowlist |
| schedule_external_look_emails | Model specific, requires schedule_look_emails | Deliver the same content to any email domain, regardless of the allowlist |
| create_alerts | Instance wide | Create dashboard alerts, and send email alert notifications when combined with a scheduling permission |
The Email domain allowlist on the Settings page of the Admin panel lets admins limit which email domains can receive deliveries. Users who also have the schedule_without_limit permission can select All Results when delivering Looks or Explores, while deliveries without that permission are limited to 5,000 rows. Users must have access to all models to send or schedule System Activity dashboards.
Exam tip: To deliver a Look or an Explore as a PDF or PNG, save the Look to a dashboard and schedule the dashboard in that format.
Data-driven alerts in Looker are notifications created from a dashboard tile that watch for a change in data. An alert starts owned by the user who creates it, and that owner can view, edit, disable, and enable it from the Manage Alerts user page. Other users can see and duplicate alerts that are marked Public, but they cannot change the original alert.
Creating alerts requires the create_alerts permission plus access to the dashboard tile and its underlying data. Sending an alert notification by email also requires schedule_look_emails or schedule_external_look_emails, because the alert delivery flows from the Scheduler to the email destination. Alerts that send Slack notifications require the user to be signed in to the same Slack workspace that the admin connected to Looker, and Slack delivery also requires the send_to_integration permission.
Managing folder permissions is how Looker controls who can view or change saved content. Content access decides whether a user or group can view or edit a board, a folder, and the Looks and dashboards inside that folder. Data access is separate and controls which rows and fields a user is allowed to see, so a user with folder access still only receives data they are permitted to view.
Folders use two content access levels. View allows a user to see the folder and open its content, while Manage Access, Edit allows a user to change content, manage who else can access it, and copy or move Looks and user-defined dashboards to another folder. Folders were called Spaces before Looker 6.20, and a moved LookML dashboard inherits the access controls of its destination folder.
Moved LookML dashboards have stricter viewing rules than other content. To move a LookML dashboard out of the LookML dashboards folder, a user needs the see_lookml_dashboards and develop permissions, access to the dashboard's LookML model, and Manage Access, Edit on the destination folder. To view that moved dashboard, users need see_looks or see_user_dashboards permission plus access to the destination folder and to the LookML model, so users with only see_lookml_dashboards can no longer see it. If a dashboard has tiles based on Looks, those Looks must stay in the same folder as the dashboard, and moving a Look used by a dashboard creates a copy in the new location while keeping the original in place.
.dashboard.lookml files and can be converted in either direction.A query tile is an independent query that belongs to its dashboard and survives if its source Look is deleted, while a Look-linked tile stays connected to its saved Look and shows an error if that Look is deleted. Choose a query tile to keep the tile unchanged and avoid cluttering folders with extra Looks, and choose a Look-linked tile when you want one Look to feed multiple dashboards so every linked tile updates when the Look changes.
A user-defined dashboard is created and maintained through the Looker user interface with dashboard tiles that can be rearranged, resized and edited, while a LookML dashboard is defined in LookML code in a file with the extension .dashboard.lookml that provides version control. The two types can be converted in either direction by copying a LookML dashboard to a folder to get a user-defined dashboard and generating LookML from a user-defined dashboard to get a LookML dashboard.
Dashboard filters let viewers narrow all connected tiles to the data they care about, while cross-filtering lets a viewer click a data point in one tile to automatically filter all other tiles to that value. Dashboard filters are added in edit mode and configured to control data across tiles by common dimensions such as date, region or product, while cross-filters cannot be saved to the dashboard but can be shared by sharing the URL of the cross-filtered dashboard.
Scheduling Looker dashboard deliveries to email requires the schedule_look_emails permission, which is limited by the Email domain allowlist. Delivering to any email domain regardless of the allowlist requires schedule_external_look_emails in addition to schedule_look_emails, and deliveries without the schedule_without_limit permission are limited to 5,000 rows.
A business intelligence team is configuring data-driven alerts on key performance charts within Looker Studio Pro to notify internal stakeholders whenever sales targets fall below a specific threshold.
Which requirement must be met when configuring the recipients and conditions for these chart alerts?
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