Looker Studio Technical Implementation

Overview

42crawl provides a "Community Connector" style integration for Looker Studio, allowing users to build live SEO dashboards. Unlike traditional direct exports, this feature uses an Edge Function as a data provider that Looker Studio can query.

Why This Exists

• Data Persistence: SEO crawls are transient by default. The Looker Studio integration allows users to "pin" a specific crawl result for reporting.
• Reporting Automation: Once connected, Looker Studio handles the visualization, allowing for custom agency-branded reports without building a custom UI.

How It Works

Architecture

The integration relies on the looker-data-source Supabase Edge Function and Supabase Storage.

1. Selection: The user selects "Export to Looker Studio" in the dashboard (LookerStudioModal.tsx).
2. Snapshotting: The frontend sends the crawl results and stats to the looker-data-source Edge Function.
3. Storage: The Edge Function serializes the data into a standardized JSON format and uploads it to a Supabase Storage bucket named looker-exports.
4. Retrieval: The function generates a unique URL (or signed URL) that Looker Studio uses to fetch the JSON data.

Standardized Schema

The Edge Function (supabase/functions/looker-data-source/index.ts) enforces a strict schema for the JSON output to ensure compatibility with Looker Studio fields:

• url: STRING
• healthScore: NUMBER
• performanceScore: NUMBER
• geoScore: NUMBER
• criticalIssues: NUMBER
• wordCount: NUMBER
• (and 15+ other SEO metrics)

Configuration

Required Setup

• Supabase Storage: A bucket named looker-exports must be created and set to public or managed via signed URLs.
• Service Role: The Edge Function uses the SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY to bypass RLS and manage storage objects.

Environment Variables

• SUPABASE_URL: The project's Supabase URL.
• SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY: Required for storage management.

User Flow

1. User clicks Export > Looker Studio.
2. The modal (LookerStudioModal.tsx) triggers a POST request to the Edge Function.
3. The Edge Function returns a dataUrl.
4. The user is provided with a "Deployment URL" for the Looker Studio Connector, which they configure using the provided dataUrl.

API

looker-data-source (Edge Function)

POST - Create Snapshot

• Endpoint: /functions/v1/looker-data-source
• Body:

  {
    "action": "create",
    "domain": "example.com",
    "pages": [...],
    "stats": {...}
  }

• Returns: Promise<{ success: true, url: string, id: string, expiresAt: string }>

GET - Retrieve Snapshot

• Endpoint: /functions/v1/looker-data-source?id=<UUID>
• Returns: The full JSON data in Looker-compatible format.

Edge Cases & Limitations

• Data Expiration: Snapshots are configured to expire after 24 hours (controllable via EXPIRY_SECONDS in the function).
• Storage Limits: Large crawls can generate multi-megabyte JSON files. The function currently relies on Supabase Storage quotas.

Security Considerations

• Signed URLs: The function prefers signed URLs for retrieval to prevent unauthorized access to private SEO data.
• Service Role Scoping: The service role is only used within the Edge Function to facilitate storage operations.

Related Features

• Google Sheets Export
• Crawl Comparison
• Crawl Persistence