All About SharePoint: SharePoint 2013 - A Practical Tool For Information Management (Part 2)

Part 1 Metadata Navigation and Filtering

Metadata navigation and filtering can be enabled in lists and libraries. Using metadata navigation makes it easier for users to find content in large lists and libraries. Users can easily filter and find content by using a navigation tree. It is separate from the search functionality that is available in the list. When setting up metadata navigation, you can determine which columsn from the library appear in the tree, and you can also specify key filters.

1. To enable metadata navigation, first you have to activate Metadata Navigation and Filtering feature in site features. Once you have activated this feature, you will see an additional setting in the list settings. Go to list settings, under General Settings, you will see Metadata navigation settings. Click this link.

Figure 15-17: Metadata Navigation Settings

Add ItemType, the new column you created, from Available Hierarchy Fields to Selected Hierarchy Fields. You can also add filter fields that you want to appear in the tree navigation.

2. This is how navigation tree looks:

Figure 15-18: Metadata navigation and filtering

Click on any term in the tree to filter the results, you will only see items related to that term. The tree displays a hierarchy of managed terms. This lets users create dynamic displays of content. Users can refine this more by using the key filters. You may have noticed another option on the settings page that lets you create index. By default, SharePoint performs automatic index creation. Indexes are created automatically for the fields that you add to the navigation tree. You can disable automatic indexing and configure the indexes manually. If a user loads a view that exceeds the threshold, then metadata navigation and filtering creates a modified version of the original user query called a fallback query. The fallback query runs against a portion of the list instead of the complete list. As a result, it displays a partial set of the items requested.

3. In list settings, there is another option called Enterprise Metadata and Keywords Settings under Permissions and Management. If enabled, it lets users enter their own keywords. All keywords are stored in keywords set. Go to list settings, and click on this link. Check Add an Enterprise Keywords column to the list and enable keyword synchronization. Now go back to the list and add a new item. You will see two fields, one the custom metadata column and another for keywords. If term set is closed, users cannot add their own terms but they can still add keywords using the keywords field and it helps them collaborate and share information with each other because this information then appears in search results when someone performs a search using these keywords.

Metadata Management in SharePoint Online

1. Now, you will enable metadata management in SharePoint Online. Log on to SharePoint Online. Go to Site collection features and activate feature SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features.

Figure 15-19: SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features

2. Go to Manage site features and activate SharePoint Server Publishing feature.

Figure 15-20: SharePoint Server Publishing

3. After activating the feature, you will see a link called Navigation in Site Settings.

Figure 15-21: Navigation

4. Click this link to go to Navigation Settings. In Global Navigation, select Managed Navigation option.

Figure 15-22: Managed Navigation

5. In Current Navigation, select Managed Navigation (the second option).

6. In Managed Navigation: Term Set section, click Create Term Set button. This will add a new term set. You will see message “Successfully created term set ‘xyz’. If your site name is ABC Inc., the term set group will be called as ABC Inc. Team Site Navigation. You can create more term sets if you want by clicking the Create Term Set button. All term sets will appear under the same group.

7. Under the Create Term Set button, there will be a link Term Store Managemen Tool. Click it to open the tool and add terms.

8. Under Site Collection – Your site URL link, you will see your new term set. Open its menu and select Create Term. Enter term and hit Enter. Add as many terms as you like. Remember, you can group managers and contributors in the settings on the right side. You can also enter root URLs of site collections that will have read only access to the contents of term sets in this group in the Site Collection Access.

Figure 15-23: Add new terms

9. After you have added term, click on the term. It will open term’s settings on the right side. You can change the default label of the term. You can also add other labels for the term. You can enable or disable tagging for this term by checking/unchecking Available for Tagging option.

10. You can enter children terms as well. For example, select a term and then add terms under it. You can create a hierarchy of terms.

Figure: 15-24: Terms hierarchy

11. Click on the term set again. On the right side, you will see general properties of the term set. There are several other tabs that you can use to definre more properties for the term set. Select INTENDED USE tab. You can choose the option of showing or hiding this term set on this page. You can also choose if you want to use this term set for site navigation. You can define custom sort for your terms by going to CUSTOM SORT tab. Go to TERM-DRIVEN PAGES tab.

Figure 15-25: Term-drive pages

Target Page Settings allow you to change target page for terms in this term set. You can specify the page that loads when you navigate to the friendly URL for a term in this term set. Catalog Item Page settings allow you to define pages used to render catalog data. The terms in this term set can be used as catalog categories. You can specify the page that’s loaded when you navigate to a catalog item under a category in this term set.

CUSTOM PROPERTIES tab lets you define custom properties to store additional data about a term set. If you select a term and then go to CUSTOM PROPERTIES tab, you will see Shared Properties and Local Properties. Shared Properties are available on all reused or pinned instances of this term anywhere in the term store. Local Properties are only available for this term in this term set.

12. Go to main site and add a custom list or use an existing list to test metadata terms that you added in the term set. You can use default Documents library in the main site to test the metadata terms. Go to Documents library. Click LIBRARY tab. Click Create Column button in the ribbon. Enter My Terms in the Column name. Select Managed Metadata as the column type. In Term Set Settings, select the term set you created above. Click OK.

13. Add a new document in the library. Go to document properties and select Edit Properties. On Edit Properties page, you will see metadata column My Terms. Start typing something in the field, you will see the terms related to the word being entered in the suggestions. Select terms and click Save.