Looker Data Dictionary

[Dawid]

Let’s talk about the Data Dictionary!

It would be good to gather feedback and requests in one place. I think it would be great addition in the future.

My humble requests and observations:

1. I really like the UI. It’s clean and yet has a lot of information. Would prefer the list of fields to be more compact (in general I use 80% zoom anywhere in Looker)

2. Optional display of fields from JOINs. Otherwise each explore gets big with repetitive metrics. I have two explores that are joined to everything. No need to show their fields on each page, they have their own page.

3. Showing the explore fields first then the JOINs’. If it happens that my explore starts with N but join starts with A, the join fields will be first. I think the order should go with the importance and then alphabet. If I have a join in each explore that starts with A, then it will look like it’s the same page everywhere (until people start scrolling a lot).

4. Ability to add descriptions that only live in Data Dictionary not LookML. There are things I want to add but not to be visible in the UI.

5. It would be amazing to have a different view that groups items by the group first. Again it’s all to make it more compact upon first entry and then allow people to find what they need.

6. Show dimensions group as one field not each timeframe separately

7. Filter for hidden fields

As you can see for me the most important part is that the list is as compact as possible. Good UI and search invite people to explore, which is great but they can get overwhelmed upon first visit.