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Creating a new LookML project

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A project is a collection of LookML files that describe how your database tables are related to each other and how Looker should interpret those tables. You can learn more about projects on the LookML projects and development model and LookML terms and concepts documentation pages. For information about accessing and editing existing projects, see the Accessing and editing project information documentation page.

A LookML project can contain more than one model file. However, if you want to specify permissions for users around seeing and editing LookML for a specific model file, you might want to create a new project. Although most permissions in Looker apply at the model level, there are some that apply to the project level, including see_lookml, which lets you view LookML for a project, and develop, which lets you edit the LookML. If you want to give users access to one model but not another, it’s a good idea to create a separate project containing the model you don’t want them to have access to.

Creating a project

  1. Click on Develop in the menu bar and verify that you are in Development Mode.

2. Select Projects from the Develop menu:

  1. From the LookML Projects page, click New LookML Project to select the options for your project:

Looker can create a project in several ways. The steps taken depend on the Starting Point option you choose. The following sections describe how these starting points work:

If you are a Looker admin and you want to rename your project after you’ve created it, use the Project Settings page (see the Accessing and editing project information documentation page).

Automatically generating a model from your database

If you select Generate Model from Database Schema as the starting point, the LookML generator automatically creates your model and view project files based on the tables in your database. See the Generating a model documentation page for more information.

With this option, Looker asks for the connection name so that it can automatically generate LookML based your database. However, you can still add additional connections later.

Cloning a public Git repository

If you select Clone Public Git Repository as the starting point, Looker will copy the files from a public Git repository into your new LookML project.

Looker projects that are cloned from public Git repositories are read-only. However, you can import the read-only project into another of your Looker projects, where you can then edit the files. Additionally, you can use the cloned repository files as a starting point, then use the Looker extends parameter or refinements to build up a project from there.

To clone an existing public Git repository into a Looker project:

  1. Click on Develop in the menu bar and verify that you are in Development Mode.

If your admin has enabled the Enhanced Navigation Labs feature, the Development Mode option is located in the new enhanced left navigation panel.

  1. Select Manage LookML Projects from the Develop menu.
  2. From the LookML Projects page, click New LookML Project to open the New Project page:

  1. In the New Project page, specify the options for your project:

    • Give your project a name.
    • For Starting Point, choose Clone Public Git Repository.
    • Enter the URL for the public Git repository. Make sure that the URL is in the format git://github.com/example/my-repository.git.

      If you have a URL such as https://github.com/llooker/blocks_redshift_admin, you can edit it to the correct format by replacing “https://” with “git://” and then adding “.git” at the end. So the URL you would enter would be: git://github.com/llooker/blocks_redshift_admin.git.

  2. Click Create Project. Looker will pull all the public repository’s files into a new LookML project and open the project in the Looker IDE.

Creating a blank project

If you select Blank Project as the starting point, Looker creates an empty project so that you can create your LookML files from scratch.

To create a blank project:

  1. Click on Develop in the menu bar and verify that you are in Development Mode.

If your admin has enabled the Enhanced Navigation Labs feature, the Development Mode option is located in the new enhanced left navigation panel.

  1. Select Manage LookML Projects from the Develop menu.
  2. From the LookML Projects page, click New LookML Project to open the New Project page:

  1. In the New Project page, specify the options for your project:
    • Give your project a name.
    • For Starting Point, choose Blank Project.
  2. Click Create Project. Looker creates the project and opens it in the Looker IDE.

Once you have a blank project, you can create model and view files, and then you can connect your project to Git so that you can record changes to your LookML files and manage versions of your files.

Configuring a model

Use the Configure New Model button at the top of the LookML Projects page to add a configuration for an existing or a planned model.

Configuring a model for a project that doesn’t exist yet is useful if the developers have not been given the manage_models permission, as described on the Generating a model documentation page. If you configure the model for them, the developers will be able to run queries as soon as they generate or create the model file. For more information about projects with only a configuration, see the Accessing and editing project information documentation page.

You can also specify which database connections can be used by the model, or you can specify that the model is allowed to use any current or future connections. Looker developers use the LookML connection parameter to specify in the model file which connection the model should use. If a developer specifies a connection that you have not allowed in the model’s configuration, then any query on that model will not run.