SharePoint Taxonomy and Metadata 11-19-09

SharePoint 2007 Information Architecture Integrating taxonomy & metadata Jeﬀ Carr, Stephanie Lemieux Earley & Associates Taxonomy Bootcamp November, 2009

SharePoint is very easy to implement badly 2

Typical SharePoint Projects 3 Biz Reqs Implementtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Business Business Implement Implement Implement Req’s Req’s Where is the information architecture?! Examples courtesy of Lulu Pachuau: http://www.slideshare.net/LuluP/information‐architecture‐and‐sharepoint

Research Requirements Use Cases & The IA Process harePoint Personas For S Site Map & Wireframes Navigation Prototyping/ Taxonomy Testing Content Modeling/ Metadata © Earley & Associates 2009

Good IA needs a system that: 5   Supports control & standards   Has user friendly interfaces (esp. tagging)   Understands relationships   Hierarchy   Synonyms   Associations   Manages metadata & taxonomy values © Earley & Associates 2009

Before we start… some basics Site Collections Collection of sites Primary source of main navigation Container for lists/libraries Sites Primary source of “quick launch” navigation List: Basic unit of storage, Lists collection of items Libraries Library: advanced list 6

Columns & content types Content Collection of columns Types Associated policies, workﬂow, templates Columns Individual metadata item Can reference lists or other data sources Lists 7

Boundaries & Inheritance Content types are speciﬁc to Content types a site inherit from collection parents 8

More about columns 9   Diﬀerent kinds…   Date   Number   Free text   Controlled list (a.k.a Lookup)   Etc. You can also create custom column types © Earley & Associates 2009

Content display 10 © Earley & Associates 2009

Advanced search (OOTB) 11 Full text keywords Extended metadata properties © Earley & Associates 2009

Navigation 12 Top‐level navigation shows sub sites and peers All navigation approaches are Quick launch shows “current site” conﬁgurable (largely) elements © Earley & Associates 2009

Strengths 13   Easy to create new structures   Navigation is largely automatic   Easy to create metadata and connect to LOB systems   Many ways to consume content   Oﬃce integration   Document information panel   Property propagation © Earley & Associates 2009

Weaknesses 14   Very physical architecture   Content types and columns scoped to site collections   No metadata/taxonomy management   No referential integrity Topics Architecture Accounting   No hierarchical metadata Construction Engineering …or any kind of relationships! Civil Mechanical Environment   OOTB search reﬂects all limitations Finance © Earley & Associates 2009

No hierarchy 15   Metadata can only be tagged and stored as flat controlled vocabulary – no hierarchy possible Possible Possible Not Possible Regions Countries Geographic regions •  Asia Pacific •  Cambodia •  Asia Pacific •  EMEA •  Canada •  China •  Latin America •  Chad •  Japan •  North America •  China •  Europe •  Columbia •  France •  Croatia •  Switzerland © Earley & Associates 2009

Native thesaurus 16   Expansions <XML ID="Microsoft Search Thesaurus"> <thesaurus xmlns="x-schema:tsSchema.xml"> (a.k.a synonyms) <expansion> human resources hr   E.g. HR = Human employee relations </expansion> Resources = Employee </thesaurus> </XML> Relations <XML ID="Microsoft Search Thesaurus"> <thesaurus xmlns="x-schema:tsSchema.xml"> <replacement> <pat>NT5</pat> <pat>W2K</pat>   Replacements Windows 2000 </replacement> (a.k.a. use) </thesaurus> No ability to store any other </XML> types of relationships (e.g.   E.g. for NTK or W2K Associative) use Windows 2000 © Earley & Associates 2009

Q: I have SharePoint, but I still want good ﬁndability. What are my options? a) Pray b) Ace OOTB IA features c) Customize d) Buy 3rd party add‐ons 17

Improving navigation 18   List views   RSS feeds   Pre‐constructed searches that look like navigation   E.g. Content query web part with XSLT   Faceted navigation © Earley & Associates 2009

Improving tagging 19   Automate some tagging (workﬂow or event handler)   Location   User proﬁle   Custom tagging interface   Cascading list add‐on   Taxonomy management tool connector   Auto‐tagging tools Here’s the thing about tools…!

What’s the diﬀerence between an add‐on, a connector and a full 3rd party tool?

Connectors 21   Taxonomy management tool (or other) as source for metadata and search UI   Smartlogic (www.smartlogic.com)   Synaptica (www.synapticacentral.com/)   Wordmap (www.wordmap.com)   SchemaLogic (www.schemalogic.com)   MetaVis (www.metavistech.com) © Earley & Associates 2009

The underlying issue 22 You can’t change the basic data structure in SharePoint (i.e. no relationships) $ Add‐on – mimic hierarchy, enhance UI $$ Connector – outsource structure Or $$$ 3rd party tool © Earley & Associates 2009

Cascading list add‐on 23 http://sharepointsnippets.com/post/2009/01/Cascading-Dropdown--- Configuration.aspx © Earley & Associates 2009

Tagging add‐on/tool 24 Add‐on Taxo. Mgt. Tool www.kwizcom.com E.g. from Wordmap

Improving search 26   Managed properties/metadata mapping   Relevant content near the “top”   Authoritative pages/URL removal   Canned (“saved”) searches   Best bets   Faceted search add‐on or connector © Earley & Associates 2009

Add‐on: Codeplex faceted search 27   Free, but leverages SharePoint structure, so limited to ﬂat lists

Connector: SchemaLogic e.g. 29 Model content types & metadata outside SharePoint

How much do you need? 30 Fully flexible UX External search tool Deep indexing Configurable search Taxonomy‐driven faceted search Connector BT/NT thesaurus Auto‐tagging Better UI for search or tagging Basic add‐on Basic faceted search (no/limited hierarchy) MOSS Advanced search, limited configuration OOTB Navigation based on site architecture © Earley & Associates 2009

What to expect in 2010 31   Auto tagging   Hierarchical metadata   Centralized metadata store   Metadata‐based navigation   Social tagging standard for all content and sites   Search faceting and ranking manipulation (blog post on 2010 metadata management: http://www.earley.com/blog/metadata‐and‐taxonomy‐management‐ sharepoint‐2010)

Conclusions 32   Don’t skip IA process just because it’s SharePoint   Master OOTB features ﬁrst   Keep your eye on consistency across sites, site collections through governance   Select tools based on high‐value requirements © Earley & Associates 2009

Resources   Free four part series on improving search and IA   www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepoint‐ search‐and‐information‐architecture   Codeplex: www.codeplex.com   WSS Demo (Metadata and Content Types) www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx   Shawn Shell: CMS Watch SharePoint Analyst & Consultant (also co‐author of this session)   www.consejoinc.com (blog: http://blog.consejoinc.com/)   www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/Report/ © Earley & Associates 2009

Tool list 34   Smartlogic (www.smartlogic.com) ‐ taxo   Synaptica (www.synapticacentral.com/) ‐ taxo   Wordmap (www.wordmap.com) ‐ taxo   SchemaLogic (www.schemalogic.com) ‐ taxo   MetaVis (www.metavistech.com)   Ontolica (www.ontolica.com) ‐ search   Concept Searching (www.conceptsearching.com)   Cogniva (www.cogniva.ca) ‐ tagging   SharePart XXL (www.sharepartxxl.com) ‐ tagging   Kwizcom (www.kwizcom.com) ‐ tagging © Earley & Associates 2009

SHAREPOINT INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE Taxonomy Bootcamp 2009 Stephanie Lemieux (stephanie@earley.com) Jeff Carr (jeff@earley.com) Earley & Associates www.earley.com Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbancityarch/ 3921454758/ © 2009

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SharePoint Taxonomy and Metadata 11-19-09

by Stephanie Lemieux

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