Gazer - A Looker Content Utility
Gazer can be used to navigate and manage Spaces, Looks, and Dashboards via a simple command line tool.
Status and Support
As of 2023, Gazer is supported, but not warrantied by Google. Issues and feature requests can be reported via https://github.com/looker-open-source/gzr/issues, which will be regularly monitored and prioritized.
Installation
You can install this gem by simply typing:
$ gem install gazer
Alternately you can follow the Development setup below, typing bundle exec rake install to install it
locally
Usage
Display help information...
$ gzr help
Storing Credentials
Store login information by creating the file ~/.netrc in your home directory with the api3 credentials
machine foo..mycompany.com
login AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOp
password QrStUvWxYz1234567890
Make sure that the ~/.netrc file has restricted permissions by running chmod 600 ~/.netrc.
API port
Most instances of Looker use port 19999 for the API. Gazer will use that port by default when executing a command. Looker instances that are hosted in Google Cloud direct both the API and the web interface traffic through port 443, the standard https port. Some other installations may also use port 443.
If your Looker instance is GCP-hosted (*.cloud.looker.com), you must specify --port 443, eg:
$ gzr user me --host mycompany.cloud.looker.com --port 443
Options that apply to many commands
--su option
The --su option can be used with a user id to run the command as another user. This options works
with all commands. In order to use the --su option the user must provide admin credentials.
For example...
$ gzr user me --su 1237 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
| id|first_name|last_name|email |
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
|1237|Susan |Gibson |[email protected]|
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
Suppressing Formatted Output
Many commands provide tabular output. For tables the
option --plain will suppress the table headers and format lines, making it easier to use tools
like grep, awk, etc. to retrieve values from the output of these commands.
CSV Output
Many commands provide tabular output. For tables thehe option --csv will output tabular data in
csv format. When combined with --plain the header will also be suppressed.
User Information
The command gzr user help will show details about subcommands of the user command.
user me
Display information about the current user with the command gzr user me.
$ gzr user me --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+----+----------+---------+--------------------+
| id|first_name|last_name|email |
+----+----------+---------+--------------------+
|1234|John |Smith |[email protected]|
+----+----------+---------+--------------------+
user ls
Display information about all users with the command gzr user ls.
$ gzr user ls --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
| id|first_name|last_name|email |
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
|1234|John |Smith |[email protected] |
|1235|Frank |Jones |[email protected] |
|1236|Bill |Weld |[email protected] |
|1237|Susan |Gibson |[email protected]|
|1238|Anna |Grace |[email protected] |
|1239|Mike |Arthur |[email protected]|
+----+----------+---------+---------------------+
Different fields can be returned using the --fields option. For example the option
--fields id,first_name,last_name,email,personal_space_id,home_space_id.
Group Information
The command gzr group help will show details about subcommands of the group command.
group ls
The command gzr group ls will list the groups defined on a particular Looker instance.
gzr group ls --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+--+------------------------------------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
|id|name |user_count|contains_current_user|externally_managed|external_group_id|
+--+------------------------------------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
| 4|Ecommerce Dashboard-only User | 2|false | | |
| 5|Marketing | 3|false | | |
| 6|Developer (no deploy) | 6|false | | |
| 9|dashboard_only | 7|false | | |
|24|Finance Team | 2|false | | |
|25|Marketing Team | 1|false | | |
|36|Embed Shared Group Engineering | 0|false | |Engineering |
|37|Embed Shared Group ecomm_only_users | 1|false | |ecomm_only_users |
|38|Embed Shared Group awesome_engineers| 1|false | |awesome_engineers|
|39|sub finance | 1|false | | |
|49|All Users | 570|true |true | |
+--+------------------------------------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
group member_groups
The command gzr group member_group GROUP_ID will list the groups that have been added
as members of the given group id.
$ gzr group member_group 24 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+--+-----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
|id|name |user_count|contains_current_user|externally_managed|external_group_id|
+--+-----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
|39|sub finance| 1| | | |
+--+-----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------+
group member_users
The command gzr group member_users GROUP_ID will list the users that have been added
as members of the given group id.
$ gzr group member_users 39 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+----+---------------------+---------+----------+-----------------+-------------+
| id|email |last_name|first_name|personal_space_id|home_space_id|
+----+---------------------+---------+----------+-----------------+-------------+
|1237|[email protected]|Gibson |Susan | 758| 758|
+----+---------------------+---------+----------+-----------------+-------------+
Space Information
The command gzr space help will show details about subcommands of the space command.
space ls
The command gzr space ls will list the contents of a space, including subspaces, looks, and dashboards.
Without any arguments, the command will list the contents of the user's "home" space.
$ gzr space ls --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+---------+---+------+---------+----------------------------+--------------+--------------------------------+
|parent_id|id | name|looks(id)|looks(title) |dashboards(id)|dashboards(title) |
+---------+---+------+---------+----------------------------+--------------+--------------------------------+
| |801|Shared| | | | |
| |801|Shared|857 |Daily Profit | | |
| |801|Shared|1479 |totals | | |
| |801|Shared|1486 |Test look2 | | |
| |801|Shared|1509 |Aircraft Production by Year | | |
| |801|Shared| | |192 |Daily Profit Dashboard |
| |801|Shared| | |261 |New Test Dashboard |
| |801|Shared| | |383 |Sales Dashboard |
| |801|Shared| | |463 |Customer Dashboard |
+---------+---+------+---------+----------------------------+--------------+--------------------------------+
With the argument "~" the command will list the content of the calling user's "personal" space.
$ gzr space ls "~" --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+---------+----+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------+-------------------------------------+
|parent_id|id | name|looks(id)|looks(title) |dashboards(id)|dashboards(title) |
+---------+----+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------+-------------------------------------+
| 709|1132|John Smith| | | | |
| 709|1132|John Smith|1570 |test | | |
| 709|1132|John Smith|1726 |you can delete me| | |
| 709|1132|John Smith|1737 |My First Look | | |
| 709|1132|John Smith| | |410 |Indicator Dashboard |
| 709|1132|John Smith| | |413 |Accidents Dashboard 2011 |
+---------+----+----------+---------+-----------------+--------------+-------------------------------------+
With a simple numeric argument the command will list the content of the space with the given space id.
$ gzr space ls 103 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
With a tilde plus a simple numeric argument the command will list the content of the personal space of the given user id.
$ gzr space ls "~1237" --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
The user can be identified by name as well.
$ gzr space ls "~Susan Gibson" --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
Finally, the space can be searched by name.
$ gzr space ls "Marketing" --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
space tree
The command gzr space tree will display the child spaces, dashboards, and looks in a tree format.
$ gzr space tree "~" --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
John Smith
├── Trace Data
│ ├── (l) All-Time Visits
│ └── (l) Sessions by Week
├── (l) test
├── (l) you can delete me
├── (l) My First Look
├── (d) Indicator Dashboard
└── (d) Indicator Dashboard 2011
The same arguments are accepted as the space ls command.
space cat
The space cat command is used to output the json that describes the space.
$ gzr space cat 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
{
"id": 758,
"creator_id": 1237,
"name": "Susan Gibson",
"content_metadata_id": 734,
"is_personal": true,
"is_shared_root": false,
"is_users_root": false,
"is_personal_descendant": false,
"is_embed": false,
"is_embed_shared_root": false,
"is_embed_users_root": false,
"external_id": null,
"parent_id": 709,
"is_user_root": false,
"is_root": false,
"looks": [
],
"dashboards": [
],
"can": {
"index": true,
"show": true,
"create": true,
"see_admin_spaces": true,
"update": false,
"destroy": false,
"move_content": true,
"edit_content": true
}
}
The output document can be very long. Usually one will use the switch --dir DIRECTORY to
save to a file. The file will be named Space_{SPACE_ID}_{SPACE_NAME}.json.
space export
The space export SPACE_ID command is used to export a space and its subspaces, looks, and dashboards.
The structure of spaces and subspaces will be mirrored in directories and subdirectories in the file system
under the directory given by the --dir DIRECTORY switch. The directories will be named like
Space_{SPACE_ID}_{SPACE_NAME} and the metadata for each space will be stored in a
file with the name Space_{SPACE_ID}_{SPACE_NAME}.json within its corresponding directory.
The JSON information for the Looks and Dashboards in a space are usually part of the space
json data. When using the export command, this information would be redundant and so it is not
included in the Space_{SPACE_ID}_{SPACE_NAME}.json file.
Looks and Dashboards will be located in the space directories in files named like
Look_{LOOK_ID}_{LOOK_TITLE}.json and Dashboard_{DASHBOARD_ID}_{DASHBOARD_TITLE}.json.
$ gzr space export 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --dir .
One interesting consequence of exporting a space into a directory tree is that you can then place its contents under version control using a tool like git. In this way user defined content changes can be tracked over time, and older versions of content can be restored if desired.
Alternately, the space can be exported into a tar style archive file with the switch --tar FILENAME.
$ gzr space export 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --tar export.tar
That tar file can also be automatically compressed with gzip compression by using the switch
--tgz FILENAME.
$ gzr space export 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --tgz export.tar.gz
space rm
The space rm SPACE_ID command is used to delete a space. If the space is not empty
this command will refuse to perform the delete. By adding the --force switch the command
will also delete the subspaces, looks, and dashboards contained in the space.
$ gzr space rm 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --force
space create
The space create NAME PARENT_SPACE_ID command is used to create a new subspace.
$ gzr space create "My New Space" 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
Look Information
The command gzr look help will show details about subcommands of the look command.
look cat
The look cat command is used to output the json that describes the look.
$ gzr look cat 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
JSON data for look
The output document can be very long. Usually one will use the switch --dir DIRECTORY to
save to a file. The file will be named Look_{LOOK_ID}_{LOOK_TITLE}.json.
look rm
The look rm LOOK_ID command is used to delete a look.
$ gzr look rm 758 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
look import
The look import LOOK_FILE SPACE_ID command is used to import a look from a file. If a look by the same
name exists in that space then the --force switch must be used.
Gazer will attempt to update an existing look of the same name, rather than create a new look. In this way the look id, share URLs, schedules, permissions, etc. will be preserved.
$ gzr look import Path/To/Look_123_My\ Look.json 123 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --force
Dashboard Information
The command gzr dashboard help will show details about subcommands of the dashboard command.
dashboard cat
The dashboard cat command is used to output the json that describes the dashboard.
$ gzr dashboard cat 192 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
JSON data for dashboard
The output document can be very long. Usually one will use the switch --dir DIRECTORY to
save to a file. The file will be named Dashboard_{DASHBOARD_ID}_{DASHBOARD_TITLE}.json.
The --transform FILE switch can be used to update the output document. This is useful to automatically
perform tasks when promoting dashboards to upper environments, such as adding header or footer
text tiles, replacing model or explore names, or updating filter expressions. The FILE parameter
accepts a fully-qualified path to a JSON file describing the transformations to apply.
$ gzr dashboard cat 192 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --transform path/to/transforms.json
JSON data for dashboard modified by any transformations expressed in the transform file
The transform file uses a familiar JSON syntax. Within the file, you can define any number
of dashboard_elements to append to your existing dashboard. Elements must be placed in either
the top row or the bottom row of the existing dashboard, specified by the position attribute.
You must also specify the width and height of your new elements.
You can also define any number of replacements, which perform a simple find and replace
within the JSON output based on the key-value pairs listed. This can be used to automatically
replace model names or update filters for existing elements. You must escape double-quotes.
Example JSON transform file:
{
"dashboard_elements": [
{
"position": "top",
"width": 12,
"height": 2,
"body_text": "Production Version of Dashboard (deployed 2019-06-18)",
"body_text_as_html": "<p>Production Version of Dashboard (deployed 2019-06-18)</p>",
"note_display": null,
"note_state": null,
"note_text": null,
"note_text_as_html": null,
"subtitle_text": "",
"title": null,
"title_hidden": false,
"title_text": "",
"type": "text"
},
{
"position": "bottom",
"width": 6,
"height": 2,
"body_text": "Please contact the Business Intelligence Help Desk for any issues with this dashboard",
"body_text_as_html": "<p>Please contact the Business Intelligence Help Desk for any issues with this dashboard</p>",
"note_display": null,
"note_state": null,
"note_text": null,
"note_text_as_html": null,
"subtitle_text": "",
"title": null,
"title_hidden": false,
"title_text": "",
"type": "text"
}
],
"replacements": [
{
"\"model\": \"staging\",": "\"model\": \"production\","
},
{
"\"filter_expression\": \"not(is_null(${view.allowed_user}))\": "\"filter_expression\": \"${view.allowed_user} = _user_attributes['username']\","
}
]
}
| WARNING: You will not be able to overwrite dashboards that have been transformed! |
|---|
In other words, you can’t use the --force switch to replace a previously-transformed dashboard. Instead,
you’ll need to delete and recreate the dashboard. If you have stable content URLs enabled on your
instance, the slug parameter ensures the URL for your dashboard won’t change.
This is because it is impossible to know the element IDs for elements that were added by the --transform operation,
which makes it impossible to synchronize these elements in the future.
dashboard rm
The dashboard rm DASHBOARD_ID command is used to delete a dashboard.
$ gzr dashboard rm 192 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
dashboard import
The dashboard import DASHBOARD_FILE SPACE_ID command is used to import a dashboard and
its associated looks from a file. If a dashboard or look by the same
name exists in that space then the --force switch must be used.
Gazer will attempt to update an existing dashboard or look of the same name, rather than create a new dashboard or look. In this way the id, share URLs, schedules, permissions, etc. will be preserved.
$ gzr dashboard import Path/To/Dashboard_123_My\ Dash.json 123 --host foo.bar.mycompany.com --force
Connection Information
The command gzr connection help will show details about subcommands of the connection command.
connection ls
The command gzr connection ls will list the connections that exist in the Looker instance.
$ gzr connection ls --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+-------------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----+--------------------------+-----------+
|name |dialect.name |host |port|database |schema |
+-------------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----+--------------------------+-----------+
|thelook |mysql |db1.mycompany.com|3306|demo_db | |
|faa |mysql |db1.mycompany.com|3306|flightstats | |
|video_store |mysql |db1.mycompany.com|3306|sakila | |
|looker |mysql | | | | |
+-------------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----+--------------------------+-----------+
connection dialect
The command gzr connection dialect will list the dialects that have been defined in the Looker instance.
$ gzr connection dialect --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+---------------------+----------------------------------+
|name |label |
+---------------------+----------------------------------+
|mysql |MySQL |
|amazonaurora |Amazon Aurora |
|googlecloudsql |Google Cloud SQL |
|memsql |MemSQL |
|mariadb |MariaDB |
|clustrix |Clustrix |
|postgres |PostgreSQL |
|google_cloud_postgres|Google Cloud PostgreSQL |
|azure_postgres |Azure PostgreSQL |
|presto |PrestoDB |
|athena |Amazon Athena |
|qubole_presto |Qubole Presto v0.157+ |
|qubole_presto_v142 |Qubole Presto v0.142 |
|xtremedata |XtremeData |
|redshift |Amazon Redshift |
|snowflake |Snowflake |
|greenplum |Greenplum |
|mssql_2008 |Microsoft SQL Server 2008+ |
|msazuresql |Microsoft Azure SQL Database |
|mssql |Microsoft SQL Server 2005 |
|mssqldw |Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse|
|aster |Aster Data |
|vertica |Vertica 7.1+ |
|vertica_v5 |Vertica 6 |
|bigquery |Google BigQuery Legacy SQL |
|bigquery_standard_sql|Google BigQuery Standard SQL |
|spanner |Google Cloud Spanner |
|db2 |IBM DB2 |
|datavirtuality |DataVirtuality |
|dashdb |IBM DashDB |
|hana |SAP HANA |
|oracle |Oracle |
|oracle_dwcs |Oracle ADWC |
|hive2 |Apache Hive2 |
|impala |Cloudera Impala |
|spark1_5 |Apache Spark 1.5+ |
|spark2_0 |Apache Spark 2.0 |
|teradata |Teradata |
|exasol |Exasol |
|denodo |Denodo |
|druid |Druid |
|netezza |IBM Netezza |
|dremio |Dremio |
+---------------------+----------------------------------+
Model Information
The command gzr model help will show details about subcommands of the model command.
model ls
The command gzr model ls will list the models that exist in the Looker instance.
$ gzr model ls --host foo.bar.mycompany.com
+---------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|name |label |project_name |
+---------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|faa |Faa |faa |
|300_daily_active_users |300 Daily Active Users |lookml_design_patterns |
|001_hello_world |001 Hello World |lookml_design_patterns |
|video_store |Video Store |video_store |
|looker |Looker |i__looker_dev |
|faa_redshift |Faa Redshift |faa_redshift |
+---------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
Development
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.
Contributing
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/looker-open-source/gzr. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.
Code of Conduct
Everyone interacting in the Gazer project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2018 Mike DeAngelo for Looker Data Sciences. See MIT License for further details.