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April 10, 2024
Looker 24.6 includes the following changes, features, and fixes:
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Wed, April 17, 2024
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, April 25, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, April 15, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, April 22, 2024
The Embedded Looker Studio feature is now available to preview. This feature lets you view and edit Looker Studio reports in Looker and create ad hoc analyses in embedded Looker Studio reports with the Open in Reports feature on Looker Explores.
To participate in this closed experiment, you must meet the following requirements:
Your Looker instance must be running on Looker 24.6 or later.
Your Looker instance must be using Google OAuth authentication.
You must have a Looker Studio Pro license for each user who accesses embedded Looker Studio.
You must submit the sign-up form for the closed experiment.
More information for using the Embedded Looker Studio feature is coming soon.
The Allow Legacy Maps legacy feature is now disabled by default. When the Allow Legacy Maps legacy feature is disabled, any map visualization that uses the Map (Legacy) chart type will be converted to use the Google Maps chart type. This may be a breaking change for some customers who are still using Legacy Maps.
Open SQL Interface now supports parameters and filter-only fields.
As part of a Looker Studio Pro subscription, Looker Studio Pro licenses are available at no cost to Looker users. Looker admins of Looker (original) instances and Looker (Google Cloud core) instances can accept these complimentary licenses and finish setting up a Looker Studio Pro subscription to get started using Looker Studio.
The Performant Field Picker is now generally available. Search modifiers in the Field Picker can no longer be used.
An issue that caused user attribute filter values to fail to load in some situations has been fixed. This feature now performs as expected.
The json_bi and json_detail_lite_stream query result formats did not respect the apply_formatting parameter in certain cases. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, fields with full_suggestions would not show suggestions while interacting with the filter. This feature now performs as expected.
An issue has been fixed where the fiscal year was not rendering correctly in some Excel downloads. This feature now performs as expected.
A more descriptive error message is now returned when a user tries to delete a project using the API while not in dev mode.
An issue has been fixed where some projects were empty when a user first entered dev mode. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, an issue would cause Looker to incorrectly generate derived table SQL if a derived table referenced a view that referenced another derived table that was using the SQL_TABLE_NAME syntax. This feature now performs as expected.
When New LookML Runtime is enabled, the LookML Validator will now include more descriptive error information when an aliased derived table's definition references an unqualified field name in Liquid.
Previously, comparison text on single value visualization dashboard tiles could be cut off when the tile was a specific height. This feature now performs as expected.
Performance for PDT stable view publishing has been improved.
An issue was causing the LookML Validator to incorrectly mark some fields as duplicates. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, an unclear error message was returned when you selected a measure in an aggregate query using the SQL interface. The language of this error message has been clarified.
An intermittent issue was rendering a blank page when content was added to a board. This feature now performs as expected.
An issue was causing QR codes for mobile app authentication to be improperly generated. This feature now performs as expected.
March 13, 2024
Looker 24.4 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, March 18, 2024
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, March 28, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, March 18, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, April 1, 2024
Query IDs can no longer be used to fetch queries or create render tasks through the API. The Get All Running Queries API endpoint is now restricted to admins only. Query slugs that are generated by Looker will be 32 characters instead of 7.
Chrome is starting to deprecate third-party cookies as of January 2024. Because of Looker's dependency on third-party cookies to establish embed user sessions, this may impact your embed use case. For more information, see the Chrome is deprecating third-party cookies notice.
Previously, custom visualizations would not call the updateAsync function after the vis config is updated via the custom visualization API. Now, the function will be called. If a custom visualization is set up to update the vis config every time updateAsync is called, it could cause excessive refreshes.
If your custom visualization is fails to load after this update, double check your custom visualization code for unnecessary vis config updates. If you have a Looker (original) instance, you can also enable the Custom Vis Reliable Render Labs feature which causes Looker to suppress excess refresh behavior in custom visualizations.
The Performant Field Picker feature is now generally available.
When an instance has no projects, Looker will more prominently prompt users to create a model.
In the Create a model wizard, your selections are now saved even if you close steps without having completed the model creation process.
Adding a query slug to source queries in the merge query API response GET merge_queries/<merge_query_id> returns the query slug in addition to the ID.
The save_content permission now has two child permissions, save_dashboards and save_looks. These permissions let Looker admins exert finer control over the kinds of content that users can save.
Only users who have access to dashboard extensions will be shown the Add Extension tile.
Subtotals have been fixed for queries with order_by_field references in query streaming pathways. This feature now performs as expected.
An issue where embed secrets might have been visible to non-admin users has been fixed. This feature now performs as expected.
Looker now ignores all blank filter strings, including IS NOT.
An issue has been fixed that caused small decimals to be displayed in scientific notation even when formatting was disabled. This feature now performs as expected.
An issue has been fixed where the PDT Context Override toggle was improperly reflecting the ON state when it had been cleared prior. This feature now performs as expected.
Performant field picker sorting behavior has been fixed. This feature now performs as expected.
Downloading results from SQL Runner now only downloads the file and does not open the file in a new browser tab.
Filter expressions including user attributes and OR logical conditions were being incorrectly populated when generating SQL. This feature now performs as expected.
A change in the Snowflake dialect was ported to Kotlin to maintain parity. Snowflake column names with mixed cases are now properly quoted.
Filter suggestion requests have been reduced while the user is typing. Because normal typing will invoke fewer requests, the load on the server will be reduced.
An issue that caused single value change indicators to not render in Safari when dashboards scrolled has been fixed. This feature now performs as expected.
The LookML Validator no longer hangs on a connection that references a deleted or malformed user attribute. The Validator also surfaces a detailed error when the user tests the connection.
An issue has been fixed where extension documents would appear when hiding Looker document links was disabled. This feature now performs as expected.
Content Validator has added support for field replacement within custom measure filters (across Looks, dashboard elements, and merge queries).
Queries with order_by_field references and subtotals should render correctly in downloads / run_query APIs.
Looker should now correctly handle cases where the sorts query had an empty string or was entirely empty.
Previously, the All Results option was unavailable for schedules on Looks. This feature now performs as expected.
On the new Admin - Users page, Looker Support users were shown as having never logged in even for currently logged-in users. This issue has been fixed and this feature now performs as expected.
LookML-defined fields that are used in field filters will not be rejected from a set when the field requiring them is rejected from that set. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, the Errors and Broken Content dashboard appeared twice in the admin panel. This feature now performs as expected.
A data validation message is now returned for waterfall charts when there are multiple measures and a hidden dimension.
Looker now shows a clearer warning message when a user attempts to download a query with dimension fill and All Results enabled.
Looker no longer imposes the Explore row limit of 5,000 on queries that are run using the run inline query API endpoint.
Previously, the lookml_model_explore API endpoint would return a 500 error in certain cases. This feature now performs as expected.
Errors about UI downloads are now more descriptive, similar to descriptive API error messages.
Internal encryption has been migrated from AES-128 to AES-GCM-256 encryption.
The Disallow Numeric Query IDs legacy feature has been added to let users opt in to or out of query API changes.
The Advanced Features for New Schedules Page Labs feature is now available. This lets you sort and filter the list of scheduled plans on the Admin - Schedules page.
Previously, when a dashboard was scheduled using PNG format and one of the tiles contained an empty note, the schedule would fail. This feature now works as expected.
The Export function has been re-enabled, which lets Looker admins export data from a Looker (original) instance for import into a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.
Incorrect quoting in Snowflake views has been fixed.
IAM checks for ephemeral users were disabled as a result of rendering issues for users who were logged in with SAML in Looker (Google Cloud core).
February 14, 2024
Looker 24.2 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, February 29, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Planned for Looker 24.4, the Allow Legacy Maps legacy feature will be disabled by default. When the Allow Legacy Maps legacy feature is disabled, any map visualization that uses the Map (Legacy) chart type will be converted to use the Google Maps chart type. This may be a breaking change for some customers who are still using Legacy Maps.
Duplicate join names will throw a new model-level LookML error during validation.
A new LookML warning is returned when the convert_tz parameter is used on a LookML field that is configured as type: date_raw. date_raw fields have never supported timezone conversion, so this LookML warning has been added to alert LookML developers.
For projects that use the new LookML runtime, the LookML validator will now correctly show a model-level error when a join name is duplicated within an Explore. The error already existed for projects that use the legacy LookML runtime, so this update is just to bring the new LookML runtime behavior in line with the legacy LookML runtime.
The Signed Embed URL generator can now include themes, current parameters, and external group IDs.
The following permissions are now generally available to use in permission sets: manage_groups, manage_roles, manage_user_attributes, manage_embed_settings, manage_themes, manage_privatelabel.
A new Dashboard Diagnostics System Activity dashboard is available for troubleshooting the performance of individual dashboards.
The looker_internal_email_domain_allowlist user attribute is now generally available. This lets admins configure the Email Domain Allowlist for Scheduled Content feature on a per-group basis.
The Chart Config Editor now supports customizing tooltip content and styles.
Looker now supports self-service migration from Looker (original) instances to Looker (Google Cloud core) instances. Looker (original) instances must meet certain prerequisites, and you must have a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance into which you can import.
Filters on yesno fields will no longer show the "is not" option.
An XSS security issue in Grid code has been fixed.
Size-by field rendering for scatter charts has been fixed. This feature now performs as expected.
An issue where download and Explore options were showing up on drill modals for merged queries when the user did not have permission has been resolved. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, text truncation wasn't working properly on headers on small tiles. This feature now performs as expected.
Waterfall charts now render all available columns as expected.
BigQuery: Previously, if OAuth tokens were passed through as query parameters rather than in the authentication header, Looker would return the following error: "OAuth token was passed in the query parameter. Please send it in Authorization header instead."
The BigQuery driver has been updated, so this error will no longer appear.
The minimum Git command line version has been increased to 2.36.0+.
The user interface of the Admin Settings - Schedules page has been updated.
For instances with offline licenses: When an offline license expiration date is less than 14 days away, Looker admins will see a license expiration banner on all Looker pages.
The Login Consent Configuration option causes a consent screen with a configurable message to be displayed to all users who attempt to sign in to the Looker instance.
January 10, 2024
Looker 24.0 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, February 1, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, February 5, 2024
stream_to_cache time has been reduced for New LookML Runtime queries with Liquid in their result set. This does not include downloads.
The run_inline_query endpoint now applies the same query validations as the create_query endpoint. Existing calls to the run_inline endpoint that do not match the API spec now return an error message that explains the issue.
The default values have changed for the Persistent Sessions and Inactivity Logout settings. Persistent Sessions is now disabled by default, while Inactivity Logout is now enabled by default. You can change these values on the Admin Sessions page. The behavior of these settings will not change for users who have modified the session defaults.
New quick resize and tile repositioning features are available for editing dashboard layouts.
AND/OR filtering is now generally available when creating filters in Explores.
The Chart Config Editor is now generally available. You can use the Chart Config Editor to customize formatting options on Looker visualizations that use the HighCharts API.
The custom URLs for alert and schedule emails feature is now generally available.
Raw SQL will now be included in the json_bi format.
The Open SQL Interface now supports Looker-specific metadata to indicate if a field is configured as a hidden parameter in LookML.
The Presto JDBC driver version has been updated to 0.284.
The custom filter editor is now persisted when users toggle AND/OR filters, even if the editor is empty.
When used with the OR operator in AND/OR filters, filter-only fields will show a "not supported" warning.
Username and password are no longer required fields in the SMTP settings user interface.
Previously, drill modals on measures would be cut off in the data pane for Looks. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, "Fiscal years from now" could not be selected with AND/OR filters. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, users who did not have the explore permission could not view /embed/query pages. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, filters could not be localized correctly in dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, Google Maps visualizations on tiles in the lower section of a dashboard were blank in PDF downloads. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, Looks that were saved with the Legacy map type broke when the legacy feature was turned off. These Looks should now use Google Maps instead and perform correctly.
Previously, a performance regression in the New LookML Runtime caused slow validation in models that included many dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.
Previously, there were performance issues with large pivot tables that involved filled-in date values. The performance issues have been resolved, and this feature now performs as expected.
If an aggregate table references a base view, joined in dimensions, and a measure that will cause fanout, then any query that references only the base dimensions will not optimize with the aggregate table. The aggregate table will continue to optimize with exact query matches.
The Lightweight Drill Links Labs feature is now available. Enable this Labs feature for potential improvements in browser and query performance times for queries that contain drill fields.
An optional parameter has been added to the LookML Model Explore parameter endpoint, which defaults to false. If the parameter is true and the user has see_lookml permission, then the endpoint returns drill_fields and link entities defined for that field in LookML. The response for each field will also contain a Boolean, has_drills_metadata, to signify that either drill_fields or link was defined, regardless of whether the user has see_lookml permission. drill_fields in the response will correspond directly with those defined under the field in LookML or on the view level for measure-type fields.
Extensions can now be developed to run in a tile on dashboards. Extensions that support being run as a tile or visualization can be added while the dashboard is in edit mode or saved to a dashboard as a visualization from an Explore. Extensions can also be configured as tiles in LookML dashboards.
Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports the SAML and OpenID Connect authentication methods.
The Looker Admin role can now be granted within a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance. You are no longer required to have a Looker Admin IAM role to be an admin within the instance.
November 09, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports the following regions:
- asia-east2 - Hong Kong
- asia-northeast2 - Osaka
- asia-northeast3 - Seoul
- europe-southwest1 - Madrid
- europe-west6 - Zurich
- europe-west8 - Milan
- europe-west9 - Paris
- northamerica-northeast2 - Toronto
- southamerica-east1 - São Paulo
- us-west2 - Los Angeles
November 08, 2023
Looker 23.20 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, November 13, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, November 30, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, November 13, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Tuesday, December 05, 2023
Drilling on a scatterplot with quadrants and a size-by field shows all data points.
References to history_id are being replaced with a slug for query event tracking.
The Data history playback feature requires users to have the explore role permission in order to use it.
The default values have changed for the Persistent Sessions and Inactivity Logout settings. Persistent Sessions is now disabled by default while Inactivity Logout is now enabled by default. You can change these values on the Admin Sessions page. The behavior of these settings will not change for users who have modified the session defaults.
Quick Layout for dashboard editors is now available to customers in preview. Users can quickly move dashboard tiles to the left or the right side and also resize them to standard sizes. Fill out the Looker Dashboard Layout Accelerator Preview Sign Up form to sign up for the preview.
Malformed type declarations in a dimension_group no longer crash the LookML validator and now work as expected.
The "Go to LookML" link on the Explore page now works as expected.
Custom filter expressions get pushed down into NDT queries as expected when using bind_all_filters.
Number filter of type "between" reverted to type "is" when the first number was entered. This issue has been fixed.
The Databricks JDBC driver has been updated from 2.6.27 to 2.6.32.
Previously, resizing Google Maps immediately after loading could produce an error. This issue has been fixed.
An issue with configuring an SMTP server has been fixed, and the fields (Mail Server, From, User Name, Password, Port) have been made mandatory on the UI.
Custom value formats are no longer double escaped in table charts and legacy tables.
Previously, conditional formats such as "[>=1000] $#0.00,k; $#0.00" did not properly format negative numbers in tables and legacy tables. This issue has been fixed.
AND/OR filters no longer highlight required filters in red.
AND/OR filters now improve browser performance by delaying fetching suggestions until the user interacts with the filter.
The Performant Field Picker Labs feature now defaults to a new "Any" search option that searches for matches across views, groups, and fields for Explores with fewer than 5,000 fields.
October 11, 2023
API 3.0 and API 3.1 have been removed in Looker 23.18.
Clustrix database support has been removed. Any existing connections to a Clustrix database will fail to run in Looker 23.18.
Performance improvements have been made to query preparation time by front-loading LookML model compilation during production deployments.
To prevent confusion with SSO authentication, the SSO embed feature has been renamed Signed embed.
For LookML projects that use the New LookML Runtime, an error has been added: "Datagroup names may only include letters, numbers and underscores." Starting in Looker 23.18, datagroups will generate an error if they contain hyphens or any characters besides letters, numbers, and underscores.
The Get embed URL option from a dashboard, a Look, or an Explore can now generate a signed embed URL.
Embedded Looks now support themes, so the Get embed URL dialog now shows a theme selector for Looks.
The manage_project_connections_restricted permission lets users edit a subset of settings for new and existing connections.
The New Schedules Page Labs feature updates the interface of the Admin settings - Schedules page.
An issue with drilling for transposed tables has been fixed. Drilling for transposed tables now performs as expected.
The Box Shadow theme now performs as expected for static and tile LookML dashboards.
Fixed date field values were not being displayed correctly when referenced by Liquid in the label or html LookML parameter. This feature now performs as expected.
Unreferenced custom fields from drill URL have been removed.
Looker 23.18 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, October 16, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, October 26, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, October 23, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, November 3, 2023
Public preview is now available for the Open SQL Interface. The Open SQL Interface allows access to Looker models and Explores for applications (such as Tableau) that use JDBC to connect to data sources. For Looker (original) instances, enable the SQL Interface Experimental Labs feature on the Looker instance. (Only Looker-hosted instances support this Labs feature.) For Looker (Google Cloud core) instances, fill out the Looker SQL Interface Pre-GA Agreement interest form. The Google team will enable your instance for the SQL Interface feature.
IAM permissions have been clarified and made more visible in the Looker (Google Cloud core) documentation.
The in-app support in the Help menu has been updated to integrate with the Google Cloud console. You will see in-app support only if you have purchased at least a Standard Support service with Google Cloud Customer care.
September 13, 2023
Looker 23.16 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, September 18, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, September 28, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, October 2, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Thursday, October 12, 2023
The API call to create signed embed URL endpoints has been updated to remove the majority of embed administration configuration changes that need to be made when a signed embed URL is requested using the endpoint. The description of the endpoint is also changed to use a signed embed URL instead of an SSO embed URL to reduce the confusion with standard SSO authentication.
update_embed_config events are now reflected in the System Activity Event Explore.
When a dashboard or an element refresh interval is entered that is higher than the supported maximum value (24.8 days), Looker now returns a validation message.
Personal folders for users who have never logged in will no longer appear in embedded content navigation.
Auto-updates for Looker and third-party applications now display a list of entitlements that may be applied when a Marketplace listing is automatically updated.
The look and feel of the Get LookML dialog on Explore pages has been updated.
The create_dashboard_render_task now takes in an optional theme property to specify the theme to apply to the rendered dashboard.
For SFTP and S3 destinations, the timestamp in the filename of the scheduled delivery will respect the Delivery time zone.
Updates that are sent from inside custom visualizations now perform as expected.
A previous issue would cause Marketplace updates to fail when a user had not entered dev mode since the last update. This issue has been fixed.
A previous issue would cause Session Duration to be wrongly defaulted on the UI when the Inactivity Logout was enabled. This issue has been fixed.
For cell visualizations in columns with large positive and negative values, the negative value text will now appear on a single line instead of wrapping to fit the cell space.
For bar and column charts that use stacked series positioning and stack sorting with a combination of negative and positive values, the values are now rendered and sorted on the correct side of 0.
LookML dashboard descriptions are now correctly localized in folders.
A previous issue would cause scheduled plans for System Activity to fail with an undefined method 'path' for nil:NilClass error. This issue has been fixed.
A previous issue would cause suggestions to not work for fields in views with inter-view references in their sql_table_name parameter. This issue has been fixed.
Intermittent code: 1002 errors returned from Clickhouse connections have been fixed.
The average_distinct field type now supports symmetric aggregates.
A warning message will be returned when a user tries to use a subtotal with a sql_always_having parameter.
yesno filters on filtered measures when BI Engine is enabled now perform as expected.
The following SQL dialects are no longer supported by Looker, and queries against existing connections will return errors: Apache Hive 2, Apache Spark 1.5+, Apache Spark 2.0, and Quobole Presto.
Looker no longer supports connections to the Impala dialect called Cloudera Impala (with no version number and without a native driver). Queries on connections to this release of Cloudera Impala will return an error. Looker is continuing to support Cloudera Impala 3.1+, Cloudera Impala 3.1+ with Native Driver, and Cloudera Impala with Native Driver.
The New LookML Runtime feature now allows a wider variety of strings for Liquid date parsing. Date string formats that were previously accepted in the Legacy LookML Runtime legacy feature but not in the New LookML Runtime feature should now format properly.
The Teradata JDBC driver has been updated to 16.20.00.13.
When the Email Allowlist for Scheduled Content Labs feature is enabled, admin users can use the looker_internal_email_domain_allowlist user attribute to define email allowlist domains at a group level.
When the Advanced Granular Permissions Labs feature is enabled, admin users can use six new permissions to delegate management of user attributes, groups, roles, private labels, themes, and embed settings to non-admin users.
When you set up SAML authentication, merging users from OIDC into SAML is now supported.
The AND/OR Filters in Explores Labs feature is now enabled by default. When this feature is enabled, Looker Explores contain a new experience for creating and editing filters with AND/OR filter logic without the need to create custom filter expressions.
The Table (Legacy) visualization hide_totals option now performs as expected.
Liquid Ruby dependency has been updated to 5.0.0. You can now make a Liquid reference that results in a non-string value in the link parameter using the Legacy LookML Runtime legacy feature by using the {{
value }} Liquid reference syntax.
A new Looker (Google Cloud core) codelab has been published. The Connect Looker Cloud over hybrid networking codelab provides a walkthrough of deploying a public and private IP Looker (Google Cloud core) instance and connecting it to an on-premises database.
Looker (Google Cloud core) instances can now be created by provisioning a Terraform resource. The new Terraform tab on the Create a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance documentation page describes how to provision various editions of a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.
September 06, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports the following regions:
- asia-southeast1 (Singapore)
- australia-southeast1 (Sydney)
- europe-west2 (London)
- europe-west3 (Frankfurt)
- me-west1 (Tel Aviv)
- us-east4 (Northern Virginia)
August 22, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports multiple private IP instances in a single Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network.
August 18, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) instances will be receiving Looker 23.12 and Looker 23.14 changes simultaneously, during the Looker 23.14 release. See the Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes section of the 23.14 release notes for deployment dates.
August 09, 2023
Looker 23.14 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, August 24, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, September 11, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, September 22, 2023
The new LookML runtime now reports errors for multiple primary key declarations during project validation and at query time.
Cookieless embedding no longer requires that the Persistent Sessions setting on the Admin > Authentication > Sessions panel be enabled.
The new LookML runtime now allows a wider variety of strings for Liquid date parsing. Date string formats that were previously accepted in the legacy runtime but not in the new runtime should now format properly.
The Embed Content Management and Dashboard Embed Content Navigation features, previously available as Labs features, are now generally available.
Now generally available, the new permissions manage_project_connections, manage_project_models, and use_global_connections let admins delegate connection creation and model connection.
In the new LookML runtime, using the Liquid case tag with a parameter value of type: string will evaluate the same as the legacy runtime.
Admins and other System Activity users can now easily see all recent queries to your Looker instance from Looker's BI Connectors, using the new Recent BI Connector Queries Quick Start in the System Activity History Explore. This quick start shows BI Connector queries from the last seven days by connector, user, Looker model, and other relevant dimensions.
An embed_domain parameter has been added to the signed embed url creation endpoint to streamline the process of adding a domain to the embed domain allowlist. If the parameter is passed to the endpoint, is valid, and is not found in the current allowlist, it will be added before the created URL is passed back to the API caller.
The drilling dialog will now inherit the visualization settings from the query or dashboard element from which drilling was initiated. For example, conditional formatting and color collection settings will carry over to the visualization in the drilling dialog.
An issue where the Blocks section of the left navigation panel would load indefinitely on certain pages has been fixed.
An issue where suggestions failed to populate on Exasol connections has been fixed.
An issue with visualization options for table calcs not being added to the generated dashboard LookML has been fixed.
An issue with navigating to group folders when viewing SSO embedded content has been fixed.
An issue where geoJSON map layers would not load on embedded content has been fixed.
An issue where a hardcoded row limit of 5000 would cause visualization options to disappear has been fixed.
An issue where suggestions were not working when a field's derived table referenced another view in Liquid has been fixed.
Project level README files will not be overwritten when new project files are generated.
When hitting the Get Async Query Results endpoint for queries in JSON formats, Looker now returns a meaningful error.
The Clustrix database dialect is no longer supported by Looker.
New connections for Apache Hive 2 can no longer be created. Existing connections will continue to work.
New connections for Apache Spark 1.5+ can no longer be created. Existing connections will continue to work.
New connections for Apache Spark 2.0 can no longer be created. Existing connections will still work.
New connections for Qubole Presto can no longer be created. Existing connections will still work.
New connections for IBM AS400 can no longer be created. Existing connections will still work.
New connections for Qubole Presto Service can no longer be created. Existing connections will still work.
New connections for IBM DB2 can no longer be created. Existing connections will still work.
This information applies only to customers who are part of the Private Preview for the SQL interface. All modeled timestamps, except for the raw timeframe, will be treated as BigQuery DATETIME objects instead of TIMESTAMP objects.
The Set up a trial Looker (Google Cloud core) instance documentation page now clarifies that you can cancel a Looker (Google Cloud core) 30-day trial by deleting the trial instance.
Looker (Google Cloud core) instances can now be created with the Google Cloud Terraform Provider, by provisioning a google_looker_instance resource. To learn more about this release, please see the Google Cloud Terraform Provider documentation.
When you create a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance, the Google Cloud console now displays a cost estimate on the right side of the console pane.
July 12, 2023
Looker 23.12 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) rollout start: Tuesday July 18, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday July 27, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) deployments will be receiving Looker 23.12 and Looker 23.14 changes simultaneously, during the Looker 23.14 release. See the Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes section of the 23.14 release notes for deployment dates.
The Looker API reference documentation is now available on the Looker documentation site at https://cloud.google.com/looker/docs/reference/looker-api/latest.
Two new "cookbooks," or collections of instructions for common use cases, have been added to the Best Practices section of the Looker documentation site. The Getting the most out of Looker visualizations guide describes some common use cases for customizing visualizations, and the Maximizing code reusability with DRY LookML guide presents a series of use cases for applying DRY (don't repeat yourself) principles to your LookML development.
Changes to the settings API: Users with the manage_embed_settings or manage_privatelabel permission will now have limited access to the API. Users with the manage_embed_settings permission can update the embed_cookieless_v2 field, and users with the manage_privatelabel permission can update the whitelabel_configuration field.
For customer-hosted Looker instances, Looker now fails to start if an appropriate version of the git command line tool is unavailable.
The new Border Radius option for custom embed themes lets you adjust how rounded the corners in dashboard tiles will appear.
The Lexp expression matches_filter now supports the tier, location, and zip code LookML field types.
BigQuery OAuth access for a user's Drive is now read-only.
Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports the following regions:
- us-east1 (South Carolina)
- europe-north1 (Finland)
- europe-west1 (Belgium)
Custom links in alert and scheduled email deliveries can now specify a URL that uses content slugs.
Downloads of embedded dashboards or embedded dashboard tiles that have a custom theme applied will be displayed using the custom theme.
In Looker 23.12, Looker rendering supports Chrome versions up to and including Chrome 114. Looker versions earlier than Looker 23.10 support up to Chrome version 109.
The documentation has been updated regarding the behavior of the order_by_fields parameter when a table is being downloaded.
Incorrect alignment of error messages on dashboard visualizations has been fixed.
Previously, a derived table could fail to pick up on a filter value declared on the Explore level in a view that referenced the derived table via ${SQL_TABLE_NAME}. This issue has been fixed.
Previously, a query that used custom measures could fail to render data on dialects that support APPROXIMATE COUNT DISTINCT. This issue has been fixed.
LookML that is generated from results will no longer double-quote labels that contain spaces.
Looker access filters now work with bind-filters and bind_all_filters when used in an NDT.
Looker Marketplace functionality has been restored for Looker (Google Cloud core).
Failures during updates to Marketplace installations now show meaningful errors.
June 14, 2023
Looker 23.10 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) rollout start: Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Friday, June 30, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment end: Friday, July 14, 2023
Until API 3.0 and 3.1 are disabled in Looker 23.12, the new Deny API 3.x requests Legacy feature toggle can be used to configure a Looker instance to reject API 3.x requests and log those requests to the Looker system log. This will cause API 3.x requests on that instance to fail, allowing administrators to verify that no remaining calls are made to API 3.0 and 3.1.
Liquid value and rendered_value now return YYYY-MM-DD style dates for date references.
YAML LookML projects, except for LookML dashboards, will now return an error, and all content that is based on YAML LookML projects will break.
The LookML generator will always generate LookML for new projects, derived tables, and aggregate tables.
When you are exporting data to, for example, a CSV file, a date field backed by a string column in the backend database will now serialize the same as a date field backed by a date column: YYYY-MM-DD.
Starting in Looker 23.10, SSO embed functionality, including SSO embed APIs and other SSO embed-specific features, is disabled on the Standard and Enterprise editions of Looker (Google Cloud core) instances.
The Looker-Power BI Connector is now generally available. This connector lets users explore modeled Looker data through the Power BI interface. A Looker admin must enable this feature in the BI Connectors Admin page.
The new URL for the Looker Marketplace CDN is https://static-a.cdn.looker.app/marketplace/ instead of https://marketplace-api.looker.com/. If your Looker instance configuration requires explicit access to the Marketplace CDN, use the new domain value. The content at both URLs is identical, but https://marketplace-api.looker.com/ is now deprecated.
The Looker deployment process is now asynchronous when it is triggered by the deploy webhook. The deploy webhook will no longer require deployment to complete prior to responding, speeding up the webhook response time. With this change, the deploy webhook response will no longer contain commit information.
Performance of Git pull operations has been improved by leveraging Looker's required shared file system mount, since Looker does not support clustered deployments without a shared file system.
By default, new LookML projects require data tests to pass: If your project has one or more test parameters, you must run the data tests and the data tests must pass before you can deploy the project to production.
The model_fieldname_suggestions API endpoint now supports fields with suggest_dimension defined. Previously these would return a 404 error.
A function has been added to ensure that required fields are added to pivot fields to address an ordinal error. Additionally, a new function ensures that there are no duplicate fields in the ORDER BY.
SQL format queries will now be supported by the create_query_task API.
PNG downloads of visualizations from embedded Explores, Looks, and dashboards can now use applied themes.
Custom filters now support the zipcode data type for the matches_filter function.
The new Get embed URL feature lets you automatically generate a private embedding URL for a dashboard, a Look, or an Explore. The embed URL can optionally include parameters, such as filter values, and apply an existing theme.
The new Embed Your Data Welcome Guide steps first-time embedding users through creating a private embed URL for a dashboard, applying a theme to an embedded dashboard, and links to a new codelab that demonstrates how to create an SSO embed URL using one of Looker's publicly available scripts.
Selecting dashboard filter values containing a backslash and another special character will now properly filter the data.
When grouping fields or creating custom measures in Explore, the "matches a user attribute" feature of the filters is fixed.
Previously, users were unable to right-click to drill down on a point of a line/area/scatter series that had been customized from a column/bar chart and been put on a cross filtered dashboard. This issue has been fixed.
The CTE order for derived tables that share a common ancestor is now as expected.
The New LookML Runtime will not generate symmetric aggregate SQL for measures that have a sql_distinct_key that references dimensions in different views. This is also true if a dimension with primary_key: yes references a dimension in a different view.
A bug has been fixed for Legacy BigQuery that was preventing the approximate_threshold value from being added to the query SQL.
Markdown files in LookML projects are no longer accessible to Embed users through the "View Document" URLs described on the Types of files in a LookML project documentation page.
Fixed time fields with a yesno timeframe now display their names as expected.
When BI Engine Optimization is enabled, filter_expression for custom measures is supported.
A bug has been fixed where previously a blank filter value would still bring in required_fields in the New LookML Runtime.
An issue with rendering JPGs via the Looker API has been fixed.
An error when trying to go fullscreen from a dashboard has been fixed.
An update to the GitLab Merge Request URL due to a new naming scheme from GitLab has fixed a 404 issue.
For email destinations, the delivery time zone set will be applied to the filename of the schedule sent.
In Looker 23.10, Looker rendering supports Chrome versions up to and including Chrome 113. Looker versions earlier than Looker 23.10 support up to Chrome version 109.
May 10, 2023
Looker 23.8 includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected Looker (original) rollout start: Monday, May 15, 2023
Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, May 29, 2023
Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment end: Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Previously, a LookML validation error occurred when a project_name parameter was added to a project manifest file that also defined a Looker extension. This LookML error was triggered when the Local Project Import Labs feature was disabled for the Looker instance. Looker extensions do not require local project import, so with this bug fix this scenario will no longer trigger a LookML validation error.
The API3 keys setting on the Admin API page is now named API keys, in preparation for the deprecation of API3 in June 2023.
Users will now be warned when text on a dashboard tile is close to reaching the maximum length of 256 characters.
The Hide dashboard filters feature is now generally available.
The New Explore Visualizations Labs feature is now generally available. The Explore page, Looks, embedded Looks or Explores, and dashboard tile edit windows will display the same style of funnel chart, timeline, single value, and table visualizations as those that appear on dashboard tiles. Additionally, the drill overlay that appears when you drill into an Explore will match the style of the drill overlay that appears in dashboards, instead of the style that appears in Looks.
Starting in Looker 23.6, customer-hosted Looker instances require Git 2.39.1 or later on the host image. (See the Installing the Looker application documentation page for the full list of requirements for customer-hosted Looker instances.) Git 2.39.1 supports Git worktrees instead of complete Git history clones. Looker uses Git worktrees to provide faster entry into Developer Mode, among other benefits.
The Looker IDE will now display an error when incompatible types are being compared in Liquid statements.
The Source column in the Admin > Queries panel now correctly displays the API version for queries that are initiated from the Looker API.
Cookieless embed API endpoints are now marked as stable.
When the filter definition for matches_filter is empty, 1=1 will be added to the WHERE clause so that there are no SQL errors and the query can run. This functionality mirrors the is equal to [empty] standard filter option.
When the Advanced Vis Config Labs feature is enabled, any user who has either the Looker Admin role or the can_override_vis_config permission can access the Advanced Visualization editor. This editor lets users modify HighCharts visualizations by exposing certain JSON parameters of the visualization to enable deep customization. These customizations will not dynamically interact with data.
Conditional formatting logic that is applied in visualization settings now honors hidden No values when the Hide Nos from Visualization setting is applied.
Contents that are displayed in table visualization cells now shift to avoid being cut off when a column is too narrow to display the full range of values.
A new input for specifying a minimum column width override value enables PDFs with a large number of columns to render properly.
Previously, the Content Validator wasn't updating column_order references during rename/replace operations. This issue has been addressed, and the fix adds visualization configuration field references to the Content Validator that were previously missing.
Y-axis scales are no longer miscalculated in bar charts or column charts with trellised grid layouts.
Sorting for custom bin fields on New LookML Runtime now sorts by tier number as expected.
An issue was fixed where, previously, a row's value could be mapped to different tiers for a custom bin field and the internal sort field generated for it.
The Remove option is no longer available for removing table calculations from merged Explore queries. Use the Delete option instead.
An issue was fixed that caused users to be unable to select a domain from an allowlist with more than one item when including a custom link for scheduling.
An issue was fixed for the BigQuery Standard SQL dialect with the Optimistic Pivot feature where pivoted results weren't included for downloads.
May 08, 2023
Looker (Google Cloud core) is now generally available for the Looker 23.6 release.
For more information, see the Looker now available from Google Cloud console blog post.
April 14, 2023
The Looker 23.6 release includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Expected rollout start: Monday, April 17th, 2023
Expected final deployment and download available: Thursday, April 27th, 2023
The SQL generator is now fixed and adds a ${TABLE} to a field's generated LookML only when there is no other LookML reference to that field.
References to legacy dashboards have been removed from the Admin > Themes page.
The Legacy Dashboards Button Colors section has been removed from the Admin > Themes page because legacy dashboards are removed in this release.
Code for legacy dashboards has been removed because legacy dashboards are fully deprecated and removed in this release. Now all legacy dashboards are shown in the new dashboard viewer.
The Can Access Legacy Dashboards legacy flag has been removed because legacy dashboards are fully deprecated and removed in this release. Now all legacy dashboards are shown in the new dashboard viewer.
You can no longer upgrade dashboards from the Folders page because legacy dashboards have been deprecated in this release.
The Liquid parameter tag and _parameter_value variables now return a date string rather than date SQL in non-SQL contexts (for example, the html and link LookML parameters) for date parameters.
The LookML string type is now referenced correctly and no number formatting will occur.
The New LookML Runtime will only return Liquid variable not found references on parameter tags if the field reference refers to a field that is in the scope of the current Explore being validated.
The Liquid date filter %Y will now return YYYY instead of YYYY-MM-DD with New LookML Runtime.
Looker now supports incremental PDTs for Databricks connections when Databricks version 12.1 or later is used.
Content thumbnails now support dark theme.
Customers can now set the position of pop-up dialogs in an embedded environment. Customers must make changes to their embedded applications to take advantage of this feature. Methods have been added to the Embed SDK, and an updated Embed SDK has been published. The Embed SDK repository has also been updated to provide examples of using this feature with the Embed Javascript (windows postMessage) API.
An issue has been fixed where having no results in a pivot led to an error when a PDF was downloaded.
The left sidebar content is no longer selectable when the sidebar is closed.
If a browser does not support full-screen displays, a full-screen menu item is not displayed. By default, iframes do not support full screen. This behavior can be overridden by adding allow=fullscreen to the iframe element. The Embed SDK has been updated to support this.
Previously, when all data was hidden with the "Hide No's from Vis" option, the PDF renderer failed and returned an error. This behavior has been fixed. A successful PDF is created with a "No Results" message.
When trend lines were used in a scatter plot visualization, PDF rendering was causing an error. This issue has been resolved.
An issue has been fixed that caused custom visualizations to become blank when they were moved during dashboard edits. Custom visualization tiles no longer lose content when you move a tile during a dashboard edit.
Donut multiples now render custom HTML labels in the legend and tooltip.
The custom fields in filter expressions are now referenced correctly instead of returning "inaccessible field name" errors.
The New LookML Runtime now shows the correct parameter localization translation.
The average_distinct measure computed through a number type measure in the Snowflake dialect has been fixed and no longer returns a SQL error.
Previously, having no results in a pivot led to an error when the Scheduler was used to send a PDF. This issue has been fixed.
The performance of the add filter to dashboard modal has been improved. A calculation that took ~4s in earlier Looker versions now takes ~4ms (1,000 times faster).
Dashboards with duplicate filters can now be restored from the trash.
March 14, 2023
Looker 23.4 release includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
Support for YAML LookML is scheduled to end in the latter part of June 2023. All YAML LookML projects will generate a warning to this effect upon project validation, and all instances of YAML LookML must be converted to New LookML by this date.
The unversioned Denodo dialect was deprecated in Looker as of January 31, 2023. Any queries run against it will return an error. The updated dialects (Denodo 7 or Denodo 8) continue to be supported. However, customers running Denodo 7 are encouraged to move to Denodo 8.
The New Users Page and New Groups Page Labs features are now generally available. These features add a host of performance improvements to the Users and Groups pages, including pagination options on the Groups page.
The download dashboard modal now allows CSV download without Chromium. If the user is an admin, a message about installing Chromium is displayed.
The Support Access page in the Admin panel now contains a link to an upgraded support access audit dashboard.
The Looker Studio Connector and Connected Sheets features are now available for all Looker-hosted instances, including those Looker-hosted on AWS and Azure. Previously, these features were available only for instances that were Looker-hosted on Google Cloud. A Looker admin must enable these features in the new BI Connectors Admin page.
The new logging feature allows Looker to collect metrics on the number of NFS read, write, open, and status operations.
The Performant Field Picker Labs feature offers more refined search options, which let users more quickly and efficiently search for fields in large Explore field pickers.
The Query Reload custom filter in the Automagic Heatmap now correctly maintains the rendered data after every refresh. Previously, Looker removed the custom filter when a user refreshed a query.
The grid visualization feature now correctly styles different column types using classic themes and contrasting colors.
The Create Connection and Edit Connection pages have received a design refresh for improved clarity and usability.
Distinct measure types such as count_distinct and sum_distinct now bring through their filter values when referenced in a number type measure.
When New LookML Runtime is enabled, fields of type: parameter are no longer automatically added to the SELECT statement of generated SQL queries. Any references to parameter type fields using Liquid will still apply to SQL queries.
February 10, 2023
Looker 23.2 is released. The Looker 23.2 release includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
The Use Legacy Internal Query API legacy feature is now disabled by default. When this feature is disabled, Explores, Looks, and SQL Runner use the upgraded internal API for running queries. Upgrading the internal query API does not affect applications that use the externally available Looker API.
Users will no longer be able to view legacy dashboards unless a Looker admin turns on the Can use Legacy Dashboards legacy flag on the instance. This is in preparation for the complete deprecation of legacy dashboards in Looker 23.6.
When users are running model-based SQL Runner queries, the New Query Admin page should not show Error fetching requested Queries.
The Admin > Usage page now uses the new dashboard experience.
Error logging for cookieless embed has been improved. Additional error details are logged if an issue is detected while Looker is processing a cookieless embed request.
The Presto and Trino dialects now support the approximate parameter.
A new Center Dashboard Title dashboard control on the Admin > Themes page lets you center dashboard titles on embedded dashboards.
A new parameter, Email Domain Allowlist, has been added to the external settings API. This parameter takes an array of email domains of type: string as input. Email Domain Allowlist validates these email domains and saves them to the email domain allowlist if the domains are valid.
Looker has added merged_queries and join_fields as legal types for extending dashboards.
Dashboard URLs in alerts are now rendered as expected.
An issue has been fixed where a persistent derived table (PDT) that was referenced in the SQL of the query and a dependency of another PDT that was both referenced in that same SQL query and required with a direct join would not build unless the parent PDT was also required to be rebuilt in that query. This occurred only when New LookML Runtime was enabled.
The gray theme in Grid visualizations now works as expected.
January 11, 2023
The Looker 23.0 release includes the following changes, features, and fixes.
The Legacy Render Card Height legacy feature is now removed.
The Use Legacy Internal Query API legacy feature, when enabled, configures Explores, Looks, and SQL Runner to use the legacy API for running queries. When this feature is disabled, Explores, Looks, and SQL Runner use the upgraded internal API for running queries. Upgrading the internal query API does not affect applications that use the externally available Looker API. This legacy feature is enabled by default for Looker 23.0 and will be disabled by default starting in Looker 23.2.
The BI Engine Optimizations feature is removed from Labs and is now generally available and enabled for all Looker instances. With BI Engine optimizations, Looker will generate experimental SQL patterns for certain types of LookML queries that use a BigQuery database connection. These SQL changes are designed specifically to execute faster on Google BigQuery's BI Engine. This feature affects the query runtime and has no effect on query results.
The Athena JDBC driver is now upgraded from 2.0.27 to 2.0.35.1000.
If an API request to create or edit database connections passes a value that is less than the 90-second minimum for the pool_timeout parameter, an error will be returned to enforce the minimum allowed pool_timeout value.
The settings API 4.0 endpoint now allows for setting the instance-wide host URL.
The Looker Studio connector is now generally available on the BI Connectors page in the Admin panel. When enabled, the Looker Studio connector lets you access data from Looker Explores within Looker Studio by adding an Explore as a data source in a Looker Studio report. See the Connect to Looker article in the Looker Studio help center for more information about how to use the Looker connector in Looker Studio.
The Expanded Dashboard Theming Labs feature, which lets admin users display and hide dashboard header elements on embedded dashboards, is now available.
Cookieless embed session status events are now published.
The Hide Dashboard Filters Labs feature lets users hide dashboard filters through the dashboard URL, using the new hide_filters URL parameter.
The Custom urls for alert and schedule emails Labs feature lets you customize the View full dashboard links in emailed alerts and scheduled email deliveries. Both link URL and link text can be customized.
Scatterplot charts now contain an option to customize the value label for data points to any of the dimensions that are present in the visualization.
Explores and Looks now use the correct fonts.
The external group folder in embedded content navigation will now appear as the Group folder name instead of in the external_group_id.
Drill fields are no longer added to links in New LookML Runtime when they are not accessible in the context of the given Explore.
The new_lookml_runtime parameter, when used in conjunction with the sql_always_where and always_filter parameters, now works as expected when there is an always_filter option on a parameter with no form value in the Explore.
Label parameters, Times, and DateTimes formatting for the New LookML Runtime feature now work as expected.
When the liquid_filters parameter is being used and no value is set in the new_lookml_runtime parameter, there is now parity between New LookML Runtime and legacy LookML