Scheduling Looks and Dashboards Using Webhooks (3.46+)

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Looker webhooks are an excellent way to ferry data from Looker to servers or services. For example, by writing a small server or by using a service like Zapier, a scheduled webhook can be used to move a Look’s data to Google Sheets, Amazon S3, Dropbox, an SMS, and other destinations.

Here are the steps to schedule a Look or Dashboard for webhooks. Note that before you begin, your Looker user must have the send_outgoing_webhook or admin permission.

1. Get the URL for the webhook
2. In Looker, schedule the dashboard or Look, using the webhook
3. In the web service, specify the webhook’s destination application
4. Handle any configuration needed for the destination application

Documentation for the payload sent to your server or service is documented in this Discourse article: Webhook Payload Description.

Read this article to understand the overall procedure and focus on the Looker-side steps for using a webhook to schedule delivering Looks or dashboards.

1. Get the URL for the Webhook

Leaving Looker’s scheduling window open, go to Zapier or some other web service to handle your webhook to identify the URL where Looker should send an HTTPS request.

The procedure for getting the URL depends on the web service.

2. In Looker, Schedule the Dashboard or Look Using the Webhook

Now that you know the URL for your webhook, use it to send or schedule the Look or dashboard. For instructions on sending a one-time data delivery, go to this documentation page. For instructions on scheduling one or more data deliveries, go to this documentation page.

3. In the Web Service, Specify the Webhook’s Destination Application

Now the Looker-side configuration is complete. Next, on your web service, add instructions to send the Look data or dashboard PDF to the appropriate destination application.

If your web service has a test at this point and the test is not successful, then check whether in Looker you entered the URL correctly and whether you specified sending the results even if the data has not changed.

The procedure for specifying the webhook’s destination application depends on the web service. The web service side steps vary based on the web service used, whether the data is text-based (such as a Look) or binary (such as a PDF).

4. Handle any Configuration Needed for the Destination Application

Some destination applications will require some configuration steps. Now that you have defined the destination application for the webhook, handle any destination-application specific setup required, if any. See your webhook service documentation for more information about what is necessary for a particular destination application.

Conclusion

On the schedule you selected, Looker will send the results using your webhook, which will deliver the Look or dashboard to the specified destination. As you can see, in Looker you specify that you are using a webhook and the URL. In Zapier or another service you can set your webhook to trigger passing the Look’s data or a dashboard PDF to more than a hundred applications.