We have had Looker original for a while and just started playing around with Looker Studio Reports. It doesn’t seem like LookML Validator or Content Validator is aware of Looker Studio Reports. So is there a way for a developer to know if they’re pushing a LookML change that would break a Looker Studio Report?
Short answer: No, there’s no way to know. You’re right that those validators just don’t see any Looker Studio Reports.
Long answer: I asked Gemini about workarounds, and it had some interesting ideas around “defensive” LookML writing that can basically make your changes “less likely” to be breaking, for what that is worth. I pretty much agree with everything written here, even if it doesn’t directly address your issue.
- Use Aliases: If you need to rename a field in LookML, never just change the name or sql parameter. That is an immediate breaking change for any Looker Studio report referencing that field ID.
- Hide, Don’t Delete: If you want to remove a field because it is deprecated, do not delete it from the LookML file immediately. Deleting it causes the API to return a 400/500-type error to Looker Studio when it tries to query that field.
- Separate Explores: Consider creating specific Explores for Looker Studio (e.g., explore: marketing_studio { hidden: yes }). This isolates the “wild west” of ad-hoc Looker exploration from the “strict” Explores used for stable reporting.
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