Usage for LookML Dashboards that exist

[schoolsofthough]

Trying to keep Looker clean by removing unused LookML dashboards.

Found this old topic that was helpful in showing me how to find usage specifically for LookML dashboards.

The only problem is that the Explore query includes LookML dashboards even if they no longer exist. Is there a way to filter for LookML dashboards that exist since LookML dashboards don’t get moved to Trash like UDDs?

[ruthc]

No, you cannot get a list of all LookML dashboards that exist in your instance:

• You can filter the System Activity Explore ‘History’ to only show usage made to LookML dashboards (e.g. https://<your_instance_url>/explore/system__activity/history?fields=history.real_dash_id,history.dashboard_run_count&f[dashboard.id]=NULL&f[history.real_dash_id]=-NULL&sorts=history.real_dash_id&limit=5000)
• …but this only returns LookML dashboards that have had usage in the last 90 days. This means that if no one has executed the dashboard, it will not be listed. It also shows LookML dashboards that have subsequently been deleted.
• Meanwhile, the Content Usage Explore will just show you all LookML dashboards that have ever existed, including deleted ones. If you try to filter on the field [dashboard.moved_to_trash] = “No”, this will remove all LookML dashboards, as they all have a value of “Yes”.

The only answer I have found is to use the Looker API to extract a list of active dashboards. You can do this using the all_dashboards end point. I have a python scripts that runs every day to grab a list of all non-deleted dashboards (& Looks) on our instance. I used it to report on % of unused content, and also to build a report catalogue for end users to discover content.

LookML dashboards are not physical objects that independently exist on the instance.