In Looker 6.16 and later releases, there are two complementary ways to organize content within Looker: folders and boards. To use boards in Looker 6.16 and 6.18, your admin must enable the Content curation beta (boards) Labs feature.
Folders store dashboards, Looks, and other folders, and are the primary way that people have historically organized content in Looker. Folders also control content access. By managing access to a folder, you can also manage access to the content stored in that folder. Learn more about folders on the Finding Content in Looker documentation page.
To provide people and teams with quick access to their most relevant dashboards and Looks, boards are available to everyone beginning in Looker 6.20.
Like search, Popular, and Favorites, boards provide a way to surface and navigate to existing dashboards and Looks directly from the left sidebar. Admins can also set a board as a team homepage.
Benefits of boards for analysts and admins:
- Support new users by creating a specific board for new team members and setting it as their homepage.
- Provide quick access to relevant dashboards and Looks for a team or an initiative without moving the underlying content, which is stored in folders.
- Pin LookML dashboards to a board. (Note: You must do this from the LookML dashboard itself.)
- Pin the same Looks, user-defined dashboards, and LookML dashboards to multiple boards.
- Add context with Markdown links and descriptions to help guide colleagues.
Several specific features:
- Anyone can curate content for a team or an initiative and include information and links.
- When someone adds a board to their list, it appears in the scrollable left navigation pane.
- By default, all boards can be viewed by anyone at the organization. Boards can also be made private.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the difference between folders and boards?
A: Folders represent the underlying file system where your dashboards and Looks are stored. Folders also control access to content. All content access is managed at the folder level. Like search, along with Popular and Favorites, boards represent another discovery solution for existing content. They are, in essence, lists of existing dashboards and Looks stored elsewhere in Looker's underlying file system. For this reason, dashboards and Looks can appear on multiple boards.
Q: How will boards work with folders?
A: They will work in tandem with folders. Dashboards and Looks are technically stored in folders, but can appear on multiple boards.
Q: How will access and permissions work for boards?
A: By default, a board can be viewed by anyone; however, creators can choose to make a board private. To choose the access level for a board, select the share icon in the upper right of the board.
Q: What if someone doesn't have access to content? Will they see that content on the board?
A: Unlike with folders, boards do not control access to the underlying content; rather, they honor the existing access levels of the content itself. This means that if a user does not have access to particular content, that user will not see that content on any boards on which that content appears.
Q: How can I reduce clutter people will see in search results? As an admin, can I limit who can create a board?
A: Today, people often create documents outside Looker with lists of relevant dashboards and Looks within Looker. We believe anyone should be able to do this within Looker. Still, contributing to cluttered experience in places like search results counteracts our goal of making it easier for people to find relevant content. Given this, we will enable Looker admins to control whether or not boards appear in discovery channels like search by default (coming soon).
Q: How can I encourage my colleagues to add a board to their navigation/sidebar in Looker?
A: When you click the share icon on a board, you have the option to copy and send someone the URL. Additionally, you can choose to send an email notification to newly added users or groups. The email notification will encourage recipients to add the board to their lists.
Coming soon
- Improved search