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db-no-results-layout-filter Guide

This document describes the design, installation, and execution workflow of the main.py script, designed to be executed directly via uv run.

Operational Workflow​

The script processes user and dashboard replication request in six sequential steps:

Dashboard no results workflow

1. Find User Personal Space​

Queries sdk.user() to retrieve personal_folder_id (falling back to home_folder_id).

2. Retrieve Template Title​

Looks up the original dashboard template to fetch its title.

3. Duplicate Detection & Deletion​

Queries the personal folder for any existing dashboard with the exact same title. If any are found, it deletes them.

4. Copy and Reassign Ownership​

Duplicates the template into the target space and assigns ownership to the target user.

5. Check for No Results (Empty Tiles)​

Impersonates the user, executes each query on the dashboard, and tracks which elements returned 0 rows.

6. 24-Column Greedy Layout Packing Algorithm​

The script maps each layout using build_template_component_map, partitions components via partition_active_and_inactive_tiles, sets empty tiles to hidden (deleted=True), and passes active tiles to run_packing_algorithm(active_pairs) which:

  • Sorts active tiles by their original template row and column.
  • Evaluates vertical constraints: a tile is never placed above another tile that had a strictly lower original row coordinate.
  • Fits each tile into the first available non-overlapping slot within the 24-column boundary.
  • Returns the final calculated row, column, width, and height coordinates.

How to Run the Script​

Prerequisites​

Create a .env file from the example template:

cp .env.example .env

Then populate the .env file with your Looker SDK environment variables:

LOOKERSDK_BASE_URL="https://your-looker-instance.com:19999"
LOOKERSDK_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id"
LOOKERSDK_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret"

Run Command​

Execute the script with uv run while loading the .env file:

uv run --env-file .env main.py <looker-user-id> <dashboard-template-id>

Iterating Over Multiple Users​

If you want to run this script for multiple users, you can write a simple wrapper script that utilizes sdk.search_users() to find target users and iterate over them:

import subprocess
import looker_sdk

# Initialize Looker SDK
sdk = looker_sdk.init40()

# Define the template dashboard to replicate
template_id = "12345"

# Search for all active (non-disabled) users
active_users = sdk.search_users(is_disabled=False, fields="id,email")

for user in active_users:
    if not user.id:
        continue
        
    print(f"Processing dashboard for user: {user.email} (ID: {user.id})")
    
    # Execute main.py as a subprocess for each user
    subprocess.run([
        "uv", "run", "--env-file", ".env", "main.py",
        str(user.id),
        template_id
    ], check=True)