Mastering LookML: Looker's Modeling Language

Explore how business intelligence tools enable reporting, KPIs, analytics, and collaboration to drive decisions. Contrast classic ETL and star-schema architecture with modern self-service BI and Looker’s approach for governance.

Looker positions itself as a data platform, querying directly from SQL data sources (no storage), modeling with LookML and Git, with REST API and Slack for near zero latency insights.

Learn to navigate Looker using its own interface, customize your landing page, search for explores, looks, and LookML files, and use keyboard shortcuts and help resources for efficient modeling work.

Master Looker basics by defining dimensions and measures, exploring data with explores, and creating looks and dashboards. Save, filter, and visualize results with run buttons, field pickers, and charts.

Explore Looker navigation via the browse tab, including home, recently viewed, favorites, and popular, and learn boards, folders, and the Looker Marketplace with LookML models and dashboards.

Explore database connectivity in Looker by configuring connections, securing them with IP whitelisting, SSL, and SSH, understanding SQL dialects, and testing connections with Looker's admin tools.

Explore how a Looker project uses view and model files, explores, dashboards and looks, and a project manifest to power SQL queries and render visuals with LookML.

Discover looker's git integration, including version control, branching, commits, and revert to production, with https or ssh setup and continuous integration and deployment for development workflows.

Explore Looker integrated development environment, a graphical user interface for LookML development, with a text editor, unit testing, version control integration, and IntelliSense that auto-suggests, helping catch errors.

Build your first LookML view and learn the anatomy of views and explores by creating an orders view, adding dimensions and measures, and using substitution and SQL blocks.

Learn LookML basics by using drill fields and sets, applying filters, building buckets and tiers, and joining Order Items with Orders in a single explore.

Learn to create derived tables in LookML, combining orders and order items into native and SQL derived tables. Explore caching policies, data groups, and persistent derived tables to optimize performance.

Create a complete e-commerce explore by joining multiple views, aliasing to reuse tables, using sql_always_where, and enforcing primary or composite keys for accurate measures.

Learn to tailor Looker explorations by using labels, group labels, and descriptions, manage the Explore menu, and optimize field pickers and filter suggestions.