diff --git a/superset/config.py b/superset/config.py
index b8dbd62f226df..dcd40c39b982a 100644
--- a/superset/config.py
+++ b/superset/config.py
@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ class CeleryConfig(object):
 
 try:
     from superset_config import *  # noqa
+    print('Loaded your LOCAL configuration')
 except ImportError:
     pass
 
diff --git a/superset/viz.py b/superset/viz.py
index aca2ac740d467..ce4ddecd26abc 100755
--- a/superset/viz.py
+++ b/superset/viz.py
@@ -441,7 +441,8 @@ def query_obj(self):
         if fd.get('all_columns'):
             d['columns'] = fd.get('all_columns')
             d['groupby'] = []
-            d['orderby'] = [json.loads(t) for t in fd.get('order_by_cols', [])]
+            order_by_cols = fd.get('order_by_cols', []) or []
+            d['orderby'] = [json.loads(t) for t in order_by_cols]
         return d
 
     def get_df(self, query_obj=None):