The new version of Analytics Dashboards has a fresh, modern look and feel; customizable, user-friendly filters; a new dashboard creation experience and editing flow; and improved performance.
Editors may choose to revert back to the original Analytics dashboard.
New Analytics Dashboard Filters
There are a variety of new filter controls that you might see in the New Analytics Dashboard Experience. They can be displayed as inline, popover, or overflow filters. For popover and overflow filters, clicking on the filter value or the More button will reveal the full filter control.
Adding Dashboard (Beta) Filters
Adding a dashboard filter consists of these major steps:
Create the filter itself, which is what users will interact with.
Decide which dashboard tiles should “listen” to that filter. If you don’t do this, Looker applies the filter to any tiles created from the same Explore that the filter is created from.
To get started, make sure the dashboard is in edit mode and that you have at least one query tile or Look-linked tile.
Click Filters in the top toolbar. An Add Filter window appears pre-populated with fields from any Explores used in the dashboard. You can use the search bar to find the field you want to filter by, or you can select it from the drop-down menu.
These filters only use fields from Explores that are used in that dashboard’s tiles.After you select the field you want to filter by, a filter configuration window appears that allows you to customize your filter settings:
- Title: Enter the title of the filter as you want it to appear on the dashboard. The title option pre-populates with the name of the filter-by field.
- Control: Select from a list of control types, which vary depending on the type of data you are filtering. See the Dashboard (Beta) Filter Controls section to learn more about the different types of controls.
- Location: Select the position of the filter. See the Positioning Dashboard (Beta) Filters section to learn more about the different ways to position filters.
- Values: To set specific value options for the filter, choose from the drop-down or enter the value options in this field. Leave blank to allow value options from the database to be surfaced, up to the maximum number of values available for that control.
- Configure Default Value: Optionally, set the default value for the filter.
- Require a filter value: Select the checkbox to require a value for the filter. See the Requiring a Filter Value section to learn more about requiring filter values.
- Select filters to update when this filter changes: Select the checkbox to link other filters to this filter. See the Setting Up Linked Filters section to learn more about linked filters. If there are no other filters on the dashboard, this option will be disabled.
- Add and Cancel: Click one of these buttons to save or cancel the new filter.
The Tiles to Update tab allows you to determine which tiles listen to the filter. Looker begins by automatically applying the filter to any tiles created from the same Explore as the filter and sets the Field to Filter to the same field as the field chosen for the filter:
- Select All or None to turn the filter on or off for all tiles.
- In the Field to Filter section, choose which field for each tile is affected by the filter, or choose not to apply the filter to that individual tile.
- Select Add or Cancel to save or cancel the new filter.
Dashboard Filter Controls
Dashboard (beta) filter controls allow you to customize the appearance of filters for dashboard viewers. The filter control types available in the Control drop-down as you create a dashboard (beta) filter depend on the LookML data type assigned to the field you’re filtering on.
Using Advanced Filters
An advanced filter can be applied to all types of data and provides some additional flexibility in the filter conditions you can set up. To create an advanced filter, make sure you have selected Advanced in the Control field of the filter configuration window.
The Configure Default Value field populates with appropriate filter condition options for the type of data you’re filtering. For example, the filter below is filtering on distribution center name, which is a string data type, so the filter condition options include is, contains, starts with, and so on.
Filters on other types of data, such as number or date types, will display different condition options.
Once you’ve selected your filter condition option, you can select a value from the drop-down to the right, which is populated with values from your database. Or, you can type a value to receive a suggestion.
You can also enter a value yourself and click Create “value” to create a value.
You can click the + next to your filter to add new conditions to the filter, which will be added as either OR conditions or AND conditions, depending on the types of conditions and values. To remove a condition, click the X next to that condition.
Advanced Filters, Dates, and Times
While there are several filter controls that allow filtering on dates, you can also use advanced filters with dates. Among other things, using advanced filters allows users to select “complete” ranges that do not include the current time period, by selecting complete days, complete weeks, and so on, in the condition options. This is unlike the timeframe filter control, which includes the current time period.
Advanced filters also allow users to select time values, such as hours, minutes, seconds, and so on.
Matches a User Attribute
Advanced filters also give you the option to select matches a user attribute. This allows you to set filters that change dynamically based on dashboard viewers’ user attributes. See the Filtering and Limiting Data documentation page for more information.
Matches Advanced
The final option in the Configure Default Value option drop-down is matches advanced. With this option selected, you can enter a Looker filter expression to customize a filter beyond the options provided in the options drop-down.
User attributes can also be referenced in matches advanced filters, using the syntax{{ _user_attributes['name_of_your_attribute'] }}.
Displaying Dashboard (Beta) Filters
To set the way a filter displays, make sure your dashboard is in edit mode and select the style of display in the Location field of the filter configuration window. Dashboard (beta) filters can be displayed in the following ways:
- Inline: The filter is displayed directly in the top bar of the dashboard.
- Popover: A summary value appears in the top bar of the dashboard; click the value to see the full filter.
- Overflow: A More button appears in the top bar of the dashboard with a numeric indicator of the number of overflow filters; click the button to see the overflow filters and their values.
If all filters are displayed in the overflow position, the More button will instead read Filters:
Generally, we recommend that important or frequently used filters be displayed as inline or popover, and less frequently used filters be displayed as overflow.
Requiring a Filter Value
By default, filters do not require values. If a filter that does not require a value is left blank, the data simply isn’t restricted by the filter field. For example, if you have a filter on a State field on a dashboard and that filter was not given a value, the dashboard returns data for all states.
If a filter does require a value, the dashboard won’t run until you select a filter value.
Additionally, schedules that have no value selected for required filters will display no results upon delivery.
To require that a user enter a value in a filter before they can run the dashboard:
- Make sure the dashboard is in edit mode.
- Open the filter configuration window for the filter, either by adding a new dashboard (beta) filter, or by editing an existing dashboard (beta) filter.
- Click the arrow to the left of the Additional options heading to reveal the additional options.
- Select the Require a filter value checkbox.
- Click Update to save your change.
The Require a filter value checkbox simply requires that viewers select any value. To restrict the values a viewer is able to select, set the allowed values in the Values field of the filter configuration window.
Setting Up Linked Filters
warningIn original dashboards, this feature is called faceted filters.
Dashboard (beta) filters can be linked so that the filter value options for one filter are narrowed based on the filter value or values selected for a different filter on the same dashboard.
For example, you can link a dashboard filter for City to a separate filter for State. The filter value options for City will change based on the state or states selected in the State filter. The screenshot below shows that when Texas is selected in the State filter, the value options drop-down for the linked City filter shows only cities in Texas:
Once you select a filter value for State, a link icon appears above the City filter. If you hover over the link icon, a box explains that the value options for that filter have been narrowed by the State filter.
You can go further and link a Zip filter to the City and State filters, narrowing the value options for Zip depending on the city and state selected:
If you link filters and your data contains no values for a “child” filter (the filter to be narrowed), given the values selected in the “parent” filter (the filter that narrows the child filter’s options), viewers will see a No matches found message for the child filter.
For example, if your data contains no cities in Texas, the filters would look like this:
Linked filters work in one direction, from parent to child. If you make a selection in a child filter, it will not affect the filter value options presented to you for the parent filter.
How to Link Filters
When you are linking filters, any filter can be used as the “parent” filter (the filter that narrows another filter’s options), but the “child” filter (the filter to be narrowed) should use a field of type string, commonly used for words or phrases, or type zipcode, commonly used for zip codes.
If there is only one filter on the dashboard, the ability to link filters is disabled.
To link one filter to another:
- Make sure the dashboard is in edit mode.
- Open the filter configuration window for the “parent” filter, either by adding a new dashboard (beta) filter, or by editing an existing dashboard (beta) filter.
- Click the arrow to the left of the Additional options heading to reveal the additional options.
- Select the Select filters to update when this filter changes checkbox.
- Click the field box to reveal a drop-down with the other filters present on the dashboard.
- Select the
stringorzipcodefilter or filters you would like to link to this filter.
- Click Update to save your change.
Moving and Repositioning Dashboard (Beta) Filters
Once placed on a dashboard (beta), filters can be moved or repositioned by:
- Entering edit mode on the dashboard.
- Hovering over the filter to display the filter’s six-dot icon. The six-dot icon appears at the top left of the filter.
- Clicking and holding on the six-dot icon, and dragging the filter to the position you desire.
This drag and drop method can be used to reposition inline and popover filters, reconfigure which filters are displayed as overflow, and reposition filters within the More button drop-down.
If no filters are currently displayed as overflow, an empty More button temporarily appears while you are dragging a filter. You can move the filter over the More button to place the filter in overflow. If you do not place the filter in overflow, the More button disappears once you release your click.
If cross-filtering is enabled on a dashboard (beta), cross-filters cannot be repositioned using drag and drop, and entering edit mode clears any cross-filters currently on the dashboard.
Editing Dashboard (Beta) Filters
In edit mode, a pencil icon appears next to every filter.
To edit a filter, click the pencil icon. That opens a filter configuration window, similar to the one used to add a filter, populated with the existing configuration for the filter. From there, you can update the filter-by field, the filter’s settings, or the tiles to update. Select Update or Cancel in the filter configuration window to save or cancel your changes.
After editing filters, click the dashboard’s reload data icon to apply the new filter settings to the tiles.
Click Save in the purple toolbar to save your changes and exit edit mode.
Deleting Dashboard (Beta) Filters
In edit mode, a pencil icon appears next to every filter.
To delete a filter, click the pencil icon. That opens the filter configuration window. Click the Delete button to delete your filter entirely. Deleting a filter cannot be undone.
After deleting filters, click the dashboard’s reload data icon to apply the new filter settings to the tiles.
Switching Between the New Dashboard and Original Dashboards
In the short-term, you can use the original version of your dashboard when you need features not currently present in the New Dashboard and switch back when you're ready to take advantage of the new dashboard benefits.
Using the Dashboard Menu to Switch
If you are able to edit a dashboard, you can switch between original and dashboards (beta) from the menu in the top right corner of the dashboard.
To Switch from the New Dashboard to an Original Dashboard:
Click on the Dashboard Actions Menu and select Revert to original dashboard
To Switch from an Original Dashboard to the New Dashboard:
Click on the Edit gear to the top right corner of your dashboard and select Upgrade to Dashboard (Beta)
Coming Soon: Features Not Yet Supported
The New Dashboard Experience will continue to be updated with new features. There are a few existing features from the original dashboard design that are not yet supported.
Adding and Editing a Look within the Dashboard
The New Dashboard Experience does not currently support adding or editing a stand-alone Look (rather than a report built directly into a tile). It is possible to add a look to a new dashboard by navigating to the Look and saving to the dashboard from there.
Breadcrumb Navigation Menu
The navigation dropdown to the top left of the dashboard screen, which allows navigation between dashboards and looks within the containing folder, is not yet supported in the New Dashboard Experience. However, you can click directly on the containing folder’s name which is above that Dashboard Name to open the folder.
