Looker will occasionally make updates to product design and functionality that render an existing feature’s functionality obsolete. In some cases, the feature may be designated as a legacy feature — a feature that remains backward compatible for existing workflows. A legacy feature provides the option for existing users to continue to use the feature’s functionality. When a legacy feature is enabled, the Looker instance cannot support the old and new functionality simultaneously.
After you learn about a new legacy feature, you should start planning to migrate to the new functionality before you disable the legacy feature.
See the Legacy feature schedule section on this page for version information about when each legacy feature is introduced, disabled, and removed from Looker.
Learning about new legacy features
Looker announces new legacy features in the release notes. The Current legacy features table on this page provides a timeline showing when current legacy features will be disabled and formally removed from the Looker product. See the Previously removed legacy features table on this page for Information about legacy features that have already been removed from Looker.
Enabling and disabling legacy features
New features that replace legacy features are often simpler, more reliable, more performant, and/or more useful than the features they replace. To take advantage of the improved functionality of a new feature that replaces a legacy feature, migrate away from the legacy feature. Once that transition is complete, a Looker admin can disable the legacy feature on the Legacy Features page in the Admin panel.
The Legacy Features page appears in the Admin panel only if there are legacy features available for that Looker instance. The number located next to the Legacy Features admin menu item indicates the number of legacy features that are enabled.
When Looker is updated, some legacy features are enabled by default, which means that the old feature is still active. When you’re ready to move to the new feature, you can turn the legacy feature off.
If your Looker instance is created after a legacy feature is disallowed, that feature won’t appear on the Legacy Features page, and admins won’t be able to turn it on. The Legacy Features page won’t appear in the Admin panel if there are no legacy features available to your instance for your current Looker version.
If you update your existing Looker instance to a version in which a legacy feature is disabled by default, your instance will use the new feature behavior automatically.
Migrating away from legacy features
Eventually, all legacy features are removed from Looker, so Looker strongly recommends moving away from their use. Start planning your migration as early as possible to avoid disruptions to your workflows.
Planning your migration
Looker announces new legacy features in the release notes. When needed, Looker provides transition guidelines for migrating away from legacy features. The Legacy feature schedule on this page provides a timeline that shows when current legacy features have been or will be formally removed from the Looker product. The schedule also notes when the features will be disabled by default.
Leave the legacy feature enabled while you implement any necessary transition guidelines. Once these guidelines have been implemented, disable the legacy feature. Be mindful of migrating away from the legacy feature before updating your Looker instance to the version in which the legacy feature is disabled by default. If you have any issues implementing the improved replacement feature, open a support request in Looker’s Help Center by clicking Contact Us.
Legacy feature schedule
- Introduced indicates the version in which the feature becomes a legacy feature and appears in the Legacy Features page in the Admin panel.
- Disabled indicates the version in which the legacy feature is turned off for all instances that update to the release. The legacy feature toggle remains available in the Legacy Features page for the purposes of remediation, if required.
- Disallowed indicates the version in which the legacy feature is removed from the Legacy Features page for newly created Looker instances. If you update your existing Looker instance to this version, the legacy feature toggle remains available.
- Removed indicates the version in which the legacy feature is removed from the Legacy Features page for all Looker instances.
Current legacy features
| Use Legacy LookML Runtime | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
When this legacy feature is enabled, all LookML projects will use the legacy LookML runtime by default rather than the new LookML runtime. To enable new LookML runtime for a LookML project while this legacy feature is on, add a new_lookml_runtime: yes LookML statement to the LookML project’s manifest file. |
22.6 | 22.8 | 22.20 | 22.20 (November 2022) | Active | |
| Legacy Hosted Action Hub | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Allows all hosted action requests to instead use the Legacy Hosted Action Hub. | 22.6 | 22.6 | 22.12 | 22.12 (July 2022) | Active | |
| Popular fields in explore search | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Popular fields are fields that are most commonly selected by users in an Explore and can be helpful when you’re creating an Explore from scratch. | 22.0 | 22.0 | 22.20 | 22.20 (November 2022) | Active | Selecting fields from the Popular Fields drop-down |
| Allow double click to select text in textarea in Table Visualizations | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Allows users to double click on table cell values to manually select text. | 22.0 | 22.20 | 22.20 | 22.20 (November 2022) | Active | |
| Use old dashboard routes | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
When enabled, legacy dashboards use /dashboards/, and dashboards that use the new dashboard experience use /dashboards-next/ in their URL routes. |
21.18 | 21.20 | 22.12 | 22.16 (September 2022) | Active | Upgrading the default dashboard experience for all Looker users |
| Save as look keyboard shortcut | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Allows users to save queries as Looks by using a keyboard shortcut. This functionality will be replaced with other saved content options in the future. | 22.0 | 22.0 | 22.10 | 22.14 (August 2022) | Active | Shortcuts for exploring |
| Legacy Query Streaming | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Enables legacy query streaming. Legacy query streaming is less performant but may resolve unknown differences from the new streamers. | 21.8 | 21.8 | 22.6 | 22.8 (May 2022) | Active | |
| Add Looks to dashboards | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Allows users to add Looks to a dashboard from the dashboard edit mode. This functionality will be replaced with other saved content options in the future. | 21.12 | 21.10 | 22.8 | 22.12 (July 2022) | Active | Adding saved content to dashboards |
| Revert to Legacy Dashboards | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
| Allows users to revert dashboards to the legacy dashboard layout, look, and feel. This does not affect any previously created content. | 7.18 | 21.0 | 22.0 | 22.10 (June 2022) | Active | Transition guidelines |
| Allow XHTML-style Empty Tags in Custom Visualizations | ||||||
| Description | Introduced | Disabled | Disallowed | Removed | Status | Resources |
Bypasses protections against CVE-2020-11022 in Custom Visualizations. This restores support for self-closing XHTML style tags (e.g. <div />) to jQuery when used in Custom Visualizations. |
21.20 | 22.20 | 21.20 | 22.20 (November 2022) | Active | Allowing XHTML-style empty tags in custom visualizations Help Center article |
Previously removed legacy features
| Legacy Feature | Introduced | Disabled | Removed | Status | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old field chooser | 3.18 | 3.38 | Removed in Looker 3.38 | Field labels can override view label | 3.16 | 3.44 | 3.46 | Removed in Looker 3.46 | Transition guidelines |
| Leading period in field names | 3.16 | 3.44 | 3.46 | Removed in Looker 3.46 | Transition guidelines |
| Uppercase labels in download and chart configurations | 3.16 | 3.44 | 3.46 | Removed in Looker 3.46 | Transition guidelines |
| Send email from looker@looker.com | 3.32 | 3.44 | 3.46 | Removed in Looker 3.46 | Transition guidelines |
| Default Redshift PDT distribution style EVEN | 3.36 | 3.44 | 3.46 | Removed in Looker 3.46 | Transition guidelines |
| $$ substitution | 3.46 | 3.48 | 3.50 | Removed in Looker 3.50 | Transition guidelines |
| Joins declared in views | 3.46 | 3.48 | 3.50 | Removed in Looker 3.52 | Transition guidelines |
| LookML “scoping” parameter | 3.46 | 3.48 | 3.50 | Removed in Looker 3.52 | Transition guidelines |
| Legacy drill behavior | 3.42 | 4.8 | 4.22 | Removed in Looker 4.22 | Transition guidelines |
| Add unscoped field name alias | 3.52 | 3.54 | 3.56 | Removed in Looker 4.6 | Transition guidelines |
| Unsafe Liquid functions | 3.48 | 4.20 | 5.0 | Removed in Looker 5.0 | Transition guidelines |
| Non-symmetric aggregates | 3.16 | 4.20 | 5.0 | Removed in Looker 5.0 | Transition guidelines |
| Row limit only | 3.16 | 4.20 | 5.0 | Removed in Looker 5.0 | Transition guidelines |
LookML decimals parameter and int field type |
3.38 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Deprecated LookML parameters | 3.16 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Legacy Oracle security settings | 3.50 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Single row table headers | 3.52 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| JSON numbers as strings | 3.52 | 4.0 & 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Coerce dimensions to measures | 3.54 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | |
| Default query result persistence is five minutes | 4.2 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | |
| YAML-based LookML for modeling | 4.4 | 4.10 & 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Implicit dashboard default timezone | 4.10 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Allow unlimited downloads that might crash Looker | 4.14 | 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| User-based dev mode | 4.16 | 4.16 & 5.0 | 5.4 | Removed in Looker 5.4 | Transition guidelines |
| Allow creating legacy API-only users | 4.0 | 4.0 & 4.20 | 5.12 | Removed in Looker 5.12 | Transition guidelines |
| Allow calling legacy query API | 5.2 | 5.6 | 5.12 | Removed in Looker 5.12 | Transition guidelines |
Allow the access_filter_fields parameter
|
4.14 | 5.22 | 6.0 | Removed in Looker 3.38 | Transition guidelines |
| Native derived tables convert dates and yesnos to strings | 5.22 | 6.0 | 6.6 | Removed in Looker 6.6 | Transition guidelines |
| Legacy visualizations | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.6 | Removed in Looker 6.6 | Transition guidelines |
| Show full field name | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.12 | Removed in Looker 6.12 | Transition guidelines |
| Legacy rendering | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.18 | Removed in Looker 6.18 | Transition guidelines |
| Legacy .strings files for localization | 7.2 | 7.8 | 7.12 | Removed in Looker 7.12 | Transition guidelines |
| IDE Folders Toggle | 7.0 | 7.10 | 7.12 | Removed in Looker 7.12 | Migrating to IDE folders |
| Snowflake Unquoted Database Name | 7.8 | 7.12 | 7.16 | Removed in Looker 7.16 | Snowflake connection documentation |
| Treat the Datatype Datetime as a Timestamp | 7.14 | 7.20 | 21.4 | Removed in Looker 21.4 | datatype parameter documentation |
| Unsafe Custom Visualizations | 7.20 | 21.6 | 21.6 | Removed in Looker 21.6 | Admin Settings – Visualizations documentation |
| Revert to Legacy Explore Field Picker | 21.12 | 21.12 | 21.16 | Removed in Looker 21.16 | Legacy field picker documentation |
| Legacy Branding | 7.18 | 7.20 | 21.18 | Removed in Looker 21.18 | |
| Syntax Tolerant Liquid | 21.6 | 21.14 | 22.2 | Removed in Looker 22.2 | Looker Liquid syntax parser Help Center article |
| Use old navigation and legacy routing | 21.20 | 22.0 | 22.2 | Removed in Looker 22.2 | New navigation documentation |
| Require authentication to retrieve API specifications | 21.14 | 21.18 | 21.22 | Removed in Looker 22.4 | |
Save to shared space with external_group_id |
21.4 | 21.16 | 21.0 | Removed in Looker 22.4 | |
| Legacy Value Formatting | 21.4 | 21.4 | 22.6 | Removed in Looker 22.6 |