Embed SDK Demo

The Looker Embed SDK repository includes sample code and a demo of the Embed SDK. Because of Looker's security requirements, the demo requires a bit of setup. The demo also requires your Looker embed secret. The embed secret grants access to all of your data, so note the following:

  • Don't share your secret with anyone whom you don't want to have complete access to your instance.
  • Don't reset your secret if you already are using it in another context.
  • Don't set up your code to store the secret in the web browser.

Step 1: Enable embedding in your Looker instance

This is documented in more detail on the Signed embedding documentation page.

  1. Navigate to Admin > Platform Embed on your Looker instance. This requires Admin privileges.
  2. The demo server runs by default at http://localhost:8080. By adding that address to the Embedded Domain Allowlist, you can enable the demo to receive messages from Looker.
  3. Turn on Embed Authentication.
  4. In order to view your embed secret you must reset it. Copy the secret to a secure place.

Step 2: Customize the demo settings for your Looker instance

Provide your embed secret to the server. You can do this in the following ways:

  • Set it as LOOKER_EMBED_SECRET in your shell environment.
  • Create a file named .env in the root of the sdk directory. Add a line to that file: LOOKER_EMBED_SECRET="YourLookerSecret"

Provide your Looker instance host address to the server by using one of the following methods:

  • Set it as LOOKER_WEB_URL in your shell environment.
  • Add LOOKER_WEB_URL="yourinstance.looker.com:yourport" to the .env file.

Edit the ENV file to specify the IDs of the content that you want to embed.

# Looker Embed Data Configuration
# Set to - if demo needs to ignore it

# Dashboard IDs
LOOKER_DASHBOARD_ID=1
LOOKER_DASHBOARD_ID_2=2
# Look ID
LOOKER_LOOK_ID=1
# Explore ID
LOOKER_EXPLORE_ID=model::explore
# Extension ID
LOOKER_EXTENSION_ID=extension::my-great-extension
# Report ID
LOOKER_REPORT_ID=aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee
# Query Visualization ID
LOOKER_QUERY_VISUALIZATION_ID=1234567890ABCDEF123456

Edit the demo/demo_user.json file to be appropriate for the type of user you want to embed.

{
  // External embed user ID. IDs are not shared with regular users. Required
  "external_user_id": "user1",
  // First and last name. Optional
  "first_name": "Pat",
  "last_name": "Embed",
  // Duration before session expires, in seconds. Required.
  "session_length": 3600,
  // Enforce logging in with these permissions. Recommended.
  "force_logout_login": true,
  // External embed group ID. Optional.
  "external_group_id": "group1",
  // Looker Group IDs. Optional
  "group_ids": [],
  // Permissions. See documentation for details. Required.
  // Can any combination of:
  //   access_data
  //   see_looks
  //   see_user_dashboards
  //   see_lookml_dashboards
  //   explore
  //   create_table_calculations
  //   download_with_limit
  //   download_without_limit
  //   see_drill_overlay
  //   see_sql
  //   save_content
  //   embed_browse_spaces
  //   schedule_look_emails
  //   send_to_sftp
  //   send_to_s3
  //   send_outgoing_webhook
  //   schedule_external_look_emails
  "permissions": [
    "access_data",
    "see_looks",
    "see_user_dashboards",
    "explore",
    "save_content",
    "embed_browse_spaces"
  ],
  // Model access permissions. Required.
  "models": ["powered_by", "thelook"],
  // User attributes. Optional.
  "user_attributes": { "locale": "en_US" },
}

Step 3: Build and run the demo

To build and run the demo, follow the steps for the appropriate server.

Node server

  1. Run npm install
  2. Run npm start

The server will print out what host and port it is running on. If it is different than http://localhost:8080 then you will need to add it to your Embedded Domain Allowlist.

Python server

  1. Run npm install
  2. Run npm run python

The server will print out what host and port it is running on.

You may need to pip install six to install the Python 2/3 compatibility layer.