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Connecting My Looker Instance
Connecting My Looker Instance

Bring Dashboards, Looks, and Explores from Looker into Workstream

Nicholas Freund avatar
Written by Nicholas Freund
Updated over a week ago

Why connect to Looker?

After connecting, we will automatically import all of your existing Looker assets and sync any changes on a nightly basis. Our syncs include all of your Looks, Explores, and Dashboards.

Synced assets will be accessible in our Knowledge Repository and supported natively via the Workstream Concierge.

How do I connect to Looker?

If possible, we recommend using a separate service account in Looker. This helps us avoid service interruptions, and makes the connection easier to manage. Follow our walkthrough to learn how to create a service account.

If you are just trying out Workstream, feel free to use your personal Looker account as you can always switch over to a service account later. You will need an account that has Admin access in Looker in order to successfully generate an API token.

Step 1: Generating an API Token

Providing API tokens allows for secure system-to-system communication between Looker and Workstream. To generate these tokens, you will need to do the following:

  1. Log in as a Looker administrator

  2. Navigate to the Users page under the Admin settings
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    Video showing how to navigate to the "Users" page in Looker Admin

  3. Locate the account you will use to connect. Click the "Edit" button to the right
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    Image pointing a user to where they can edit API3 keys in Looker

  4. Click the "Edit Keys" button approximately halfway down the page
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    Image displaying the "Edit Keys" button in Looker for editing API3 keys

  5. Click "New API3 Key"

  6. Keep this window open so you can copy the relevant information to Workstream

Step 2: Creating the Connection in Workstream

Your connections are created and managed under the "Settings" section, available by clicking on your workspace's name in the top left corner of the screen.
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Video showing a user navigating to their connection settings, and initiating a connection between Looker and Workstream

  1. Provide the "API Client ID" and "API Client Secret" from the API key you just generated in Looker

  2. Provide your Looker "Instance root URL". This is the full URL used to access your Looker instance. For example, if you access Looker at mycompany.cloud.looker.com, your instance root URL would be https://mycompany.cloud.looker.com

  3. Click "Connect"

Once the connection is successful, Workstream will begin syncing in your Looker assets immediately, and make them available via the Knowledge Repository and Concierge. Please allow a few minutes for this initial sync to complete.

Step 3: Logging into Looker via Workstream (optional)

Live Looker Dashboards, Looks, and Explores are embedded directly within the Workstream application. If you would like to allow users to login into Looker directly from Workstream, you will need to disable same-origin protections for login pages.

  1. Navigate to the Embed settings under Admin > Platform
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    Video showing a Looker user navigating to their embed settings

  2. Locate "Same-Origin Protections for Looker Login Pages" and choose "Disabled"
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    Image showing same-origin protections being disabled in Looker

  3. Click the "Update" button

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