Embed SDK Demo

The Looker Embed SDK repository includes sample code and a simple demo of the Embed SDK. Because of Looker's attention to security, the demo requires a bit of setup. The demo also requires your Looker embed secret. The embed secret grants access to all of your data, so note the following:

• Do not share your secret with anyone you do not want to have complete access to your instance.
• Do not reset your secret if you already are using it in another context.
• Do not set up your code to store the secret in the web browser.

Step 1: Enable embedding in your Looker instance

This is documented in more detail on the Signed embedding documentation page.

1. Navigate to Admin > Platform Embed on your Looker instance. This requires Admin privileges.
2. The demo server runs by default at http://localhost:8080. By adding that address to the Embedded Domain Allowlist you can enable the demo to receive messages from Looker.
3. Turn on Embed Authentication.
4. In order to view your embed secret you must reset it. Copy the secret to a secure place.

Step 2: Customize the demo settings for your Looker instance

Provide your embed secret to the server. You can do this a couple ways:

• Set it as LOOKER_EMBED_SECRET in your shell environment.
• Create a file named .env in the root of the sdk directory. Add a line to that file: LOOKER_EMBED_SECRET="YourLookerSecret"

Provide your Looker instance host address to the server by either:

• Setting it as LOOKER_EMBED_HOST in your shell environment.
• Adding LOOKER_EMBED_HOST="yourinstance.looker.com:yourport" to the .env file.

Edit the demo/demo_config.ts file to be appropriate for the pages you want to embed.

// The address of your Looker instance. Required.
export const lookerHost = 'self-signed.looker.com:9999'

// A dashboard that the user can see. Set to 0 to disable dashboard.
export const dashboardId = 1
// A Look that the user can see. Set to 0 to disable look.
export const lookId = 1

Edit the demo/demo_user.json file to be appropriate for the type of user you want to embed.

{
  // External embed user ID. IDs are not shared with regular users. Required
  "external_user_id": "user1",
  // First and last name. Optional
  "first_name": "Pat",
  "last_name": "Embed",
  // Duration before session expires, in seconds. Required.
  "session_length": 3600,
  // Enforce logging in with these permissions. Recommended.
  "force_logout_login": true,
  // External embed group ID. Optional.
  "external_group_id": "group1",
  // Looker Group IDs. Optional
  "group_ids": [],
  // Permissions. See documentation for details. Required.
  // Can any combination of:
  //   access_data
  //   see_looks
  //   see_user_dashboards
  //   see_lookml_dashboards
  //   explore
  //   create_table_calculations
  //   download_with_limit
  //   download_without_limit
  //   see_drill_overlay
  //   see_sql
  //   save_content
  //   embed_browse_spaces
  //   schedule_look_emails
  //   send_to_sftp
  //   send_to_s3
  //   send_outgoing_webhook
  //   schedule_external_look_emails
  "permissions": [
    "access_data",
    "see_looks",
    "see_user_dashboards",
    "explore"
    "save_content",
    "embed_browse_spaces"
  ],
  // Model access permissions. Required.
  "models": ["powered_by", "thelook"],
  // User attributes. Optional.
  "user_attributes": { "locale": "en_US" },
}

Step 3: Build and run the demo

Node server

1. Run npm install
2. Run npm start

The server will print out what host and port it is running on. If it is different than http://localhost:8080 then you will need to add it to your Embedded Domain Allowlist.

Python server

1. Run npm install
2. Run npm run python

The server will print out what host and port it is running on.

You may need to pip install six to install the Python 2/3 compatibility layer.