Using the Looker Marketplace

The Looker Marketplace is a central location for finding, deploying, and managing Looker Blocks, applications, custom visualizations, and actions. This page describes how to access the Looker Marketplace and how to install its content for use within a Looker instance.

Looker Marketplace overview

You can browse content on the Looker Marketplace from the following locations:

  • From the standalone Looker Marketplace instance at marketplace.looker.com
  • From the Marketplace icon in the menu bar of your Looker instance

The Marketplace homepage shows popular Looker applications, models, and visualizations.

The terminology of Looker Marketplace content differs between the two locations. See the following table for an overview of the different terms.

marketplace.looker.com Looker instance Marketplace Description
Applications Applications Applications, also referred to as "extensions" throughout the documentation, are built with Looker components that are developed through the Looker extension framework.
Blocks Models Models, also referred to as "Blocks" throughout the documentation, are prebuilt LookML models, including dashboards and Explores, for a variety of popular data sources.
Plug-ins Visualizations Plug-ins are visualization types that you can install and add to Looker's built-in visualization library.

No permissions are needed to browse content on the standalone Marketplace instance; however, you won't be able to install Marketplace content for use with your Looker instance.

See the following table for an overview of the permissions that are required to perform the actions that are described on this page.

Task Required role or permission
Enable Marketplace setting Admin
View the Marketplace icon access_data
Browse content from the Looker Marketplace that is associated with your Looker instance access_data
Install content from the Marketplace develop, manage_models, and deploy
Install content from git URL develop, manage_models, and deploy
Manage installed tools develop, manage_models, and deploy
Use applications Depends on the extension
Use visualizations or plug-ins explore
Use models or Blocks Depends on the model or Block

Limitations of the Looker Marketplace

Looker (Google Cloud core) instances that use private IP networks or that use public IP and private IP networks don't support the Looker Marketplace.

Customer-hosted Looker instances may require additional configuration to access Marketplace data:

  • If your instance is on Looker 23.10 or later, the server that is running the Looker instance must be configured to access the public internet server that is running at the URL https://static-a.cdn.looker.app/.
  • If your instance is on Looker 23.8 or earlier, the server that is running the Looker instance must be configured to access the public internet server that is running at the URL https://marketplace-api.looker.com/.
  • The server that is running the Looker instance must also be configured to access the public internet server that is running at the URL https://github.com/.

Additionally, customer-hosted deployments that are using clustered instances must set up a shared (network) file system to install applications or tools from the Looker Marketplace.

Enabling access to the Looker Marketplace and its content

To enable users to access and install content from the Looker Marketplace, a Looker admin must follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Marketplace page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.
  2. Turn on the Marketplace setting. This setting is enabled by default.
  3. Optionally, enable the Auto Install setting. When enabled, this setting causes some Looker-built applications to install and update automatically on your Looker instance.
  4. Optionally, enable the Auto Update Looker applications setting. When enabled, this setting causes some Looker-built applications to update automatically on your Looker instance.

See the Admin settings – Marketplace documentation page for more information on these settings.

Some Marketplace content requires additional features to be enabled. To install extensions, a Looker admin must follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Extension Framework page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.
  2. Turn on the Extension Framework setting. When enabled, this setting allows developers to build and run Looker-hosted applications as well as install and run extensions from the Looker Marketplace, such as the Data Dictionary.

See the Admin settings – Extension Framework documentation page for more information on this setting.

Discovering Looker Marketplace content

You can browse content on the Looker Marketplace by selecting the Marketplace on the Looker menu bar. (If you have the develop, manage_models, and deploy permissions, selecting Marketplace will open a menu of options; select Discover.)

To find content, use the search bar. You can use the Applications, Models, Visualizations, and All filters that appear near the search bar to filter for different types of content. Narrow your results by tag, category, industry, and author using the filter checkboxes on the left side.

Next, you can install the selected tool.

Installing a tool from the Marketplace that is associated with your instance

The installation process varies depending on the tool you are installing. Applications and some models, for example, have the option to connect the tool to your source database. The following procedure shows all the possible installation options; however, depending on the tool you are installing, you may only see a subset of the following steps.

To install a tool from the Looker Marketplace, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you have at least the develop, manage_models, and deploy permissions.

  2. From the Marketplace main menu, select the tool that you want to install, and then select its tile.

    Looker displays the tool's installation page, which shows a short description of the tool and any needed information about installing and using the tool.

  3. Select Install or Install Free Trial.

  4. Looker displays pages asking you to accept the tool's license agreements and the Looker permissions that are required by the tool. If you want to accept the license agreements and permission requests, select Accept on these pages.

  5. Each tool requires some configuration information that is specific for that tool, such as a connection name or visualization label. Select or enter the configuration information, and then select Install. (After the installation is complete, you can change this configuration information at any time by using the Manage page.)

  6. Looker will complete the installation. You can now use the installed content.

See the Customizing Looker Marketplace Blocks documentation for information on customizing Models or Blocks that you have installed from the Marketplace.

Automatically installing Looker-built applications

If your Looker admin has enabled the Auto Install option in the Marketplace page in the Platform section of Looker's Admin menu, some Looker-built applications will automatically install and update on your Looker instance. The API Explorer is the only extension that will automatically install, but more Looker-built applications may be added in the future.

For more information, see the Admin settings - Marketplace documentation page.

Installing a tool from a Git URL

To install models and plug-ins directly from the Git repository, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Marketplace button on the Looker menu bar .

  2. From the Marketplace menu, select the Manage option.

  3. On the Manage page, select the three-dot Options button .

  4. Click the Install via Git URL button.

  5. Looker shows the Install via Git page. Enter the URL and commit SHA of the repository and the version of the tool or visualization that you want to install.

  6. Select Install.

Installing a tool from the Marketplace instance

To install a tool from the Marketplace instance, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Looker Marketplace Directory.
  2. Select an action, application, Block, or plug-in.
  3. Select See Code and navigate to the tool's READ.ME file.
  4. Follow the READ.ME file's installation instructions.

Using Looker Marketplace content

Installed Marketplace content appears in the following places of a Looker instance:

  • Applications or extensions are listed in the Applications menu
  • Models or Blocks are listed in the Blocks menu — users will be able to access only the installed packages that are based on the models to which they have been granted access permissions
    • Any Explores built for the tool appear in Looker's Explore menu prepended with Marketplace
    • The tool's LookML appears in the Develop menu prepended with marketplace_
  • Visualizations or plug-ins appear in the Visualization menu in an Explore

See the Customizing Looker Marketplace Blocks documentation for information on customizing the blocks that you have installed from the Marketplace.

Managing installed tools

If you have at least the develop, manage_models, and deploy permissions, you can use the Manage page to manage the tools that are installed on your Looker instance.

To navigate to the Manage page, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Marketplace button on the Looker menu bar .

  2. From the Marketplace menu, select the Manage option.

The Manage page displays a list of all tools installed on your Looker instance. From the Manage page, you can also update tools, open tools, change a tool's configuration, or uninstall tools.