SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata, presented by Nick Hobbs at Capgemini UK, 2nd May 2012. Please note, the presentation included a live demo showing how to use Managed Metadata via the UI. This obviously cannot be included in the slides. These are the topics discussed: - What is Managed Metadata? - Why use it? - How can I use Managed Metadata via the UI? - How does it work behind-the-scenes? - How can I use it programmatically? - What problems and limitations are there?

1. Managed Metadata
By Nick Hobbs
2nd May 2012
Principal SharePoint Developer, Capgemini UK
www.nickhobbs.net

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Agenda
 What is Managed Metadata?
 Why use it?
 How can I use Managed Metadata via the UI?
 How does it work behind-the-scenes?
 How can I use it programmatically?
 What problems and limitations are there?
 Questions?

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What is Managed Metadata?

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What is Managed Metadata?
 A hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that you can
define, and then use as attributes for list items.
 Available only in SharePoint Server 2010 not in Foundation 2010.
 A term is a word or a phrase that can be associated with an item.
 A term set is a collection of related terms. A column can be
specified to contain a term from a specific term set.
 A group is a set of term sets that all share common security
requirements.
 Managed Metadata refers to the fact that terms and term sets can
be created and managed independently from the columns.

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Local vs Global Term Sets
 Local term sets are created within the context of a site collection.
 Global term sets are created outside the context of a site
collection, in a centrally managed term store.
 Users can see only global term sets and term sets that are local to
the user's site collection.

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Enterprise Keywords
 Enterprise Keywords is a predefined column which can be added
to a list or directly onto content types.
 Similar to other taxonomy fields, but uses the Enterprise
Keywords control.
 Allows multiple values by default.
 Allows Enterprise Keywords and Managed Terms to be selected.
 All enterprise keywords are part of a single, non-hierarchical term
set called ‘Keywords’.

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Term Store Management Tool
 The Term Store Management Tool is used to manage the term
store. With the appropriate permissions, you can use this tool to:
 Add, modify, or delete – Groups, Term Sets, Terms.
 Arrange terms within a term set into a hierarchy.
 Create synonyms of terms.
 Specify language variants for each term.
 Reuse/share terms with other term sets.
 Deprecate terms.
 Import terms (CSV).
 Convert enterprise keywords into managed terms, moving them into
a term set.
 Grant permissions on groups of term sets.
 It is found via Central Administration, and also in Site Settings.

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Term Store Management Tool

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Why use it?

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Why use it?
 Enables enterprise-wide reuse. No need to create and sync lookup
lists in every site collection, or embed all values in choice fields.
 Hierarchical terms – select from a hierarchy, and optionally show
the full path when the value is displayed.
 Metadata driven navigation on document libraries
 Navigation Hierarchies
 Key Filters
 Term set management can be controlled with permissions
independently of the sites in which they are used (for centrally
managed terms).

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Why use it?
 More consistent use of terminology:
 Easier to build robust processes and solutions that rely on metadata.
 Improved search results.
 Search refinement panel.
 Dynamic. Values are not written into the field definition, unlike
e.g. choice fields.
 Increased flexibility. Term Store Administrators and contributors
can maintain and adapt metadata as business needs evolve.
Changes automatically synchronise to all columns that use them.
 Multi-lingual labels can be specified for terms on multi-lingual
sites.
 Reusable content types (Content Type Hub) bind to the same term
sets everywhere, or to different term sets in each site collection.

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How can I use Managed Metadata via
the UI?

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How can I use Managed Metadata via the UI?

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How does it work behind-the-scenes?

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How does it work behind-the-scenes?
 A Taxonomy Field is a lookup field derived from SPFieldLookup and looks
up from:
 TaxonomyHiddenList
 An instance in each site collection.
 Used as the lookup list for all Taxonomy Fields in the site collection.
 Contains all terms used in the site collection.
 The list item id (integer) for the term is known as WSS ID,
and is therefore unique only to terms used in the site collection.
 Located in the site collection at '/Lists/TaxonomyHiddenList'.
 The list ID can be found as a property on the web 'taxonomyhiddenlist'.
 Viewing a taxonomy field value gets the language-specific label (or path) of
the term from the TaxonomyHiddenList.
 Editing a taxonomy field value queries the term store directly for all terms.

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How does it work behind-the-scenes?
 Taxonomy Update Scheduler runs hourly, pushing down term store
changes to the hidden lists, automatically updating taxonomy field
values in all lists as they lookup against the TaxonomyHiddenList.
 The Taxonomy Field Value consists of:
{wssid};#{label}|{termguid}
 A Managed Metadata field is actually comprised of 2 fields:
 A Taxonomy Field (TaxonomyFieldType)
 A Hidden Text Field (Note)
 WSS ID & Label stored in the Taxonomy Field as {wssid};#{label}
 The lookup value to the TaxonomyHiddenList.
 Label|Guid pair stored in the Hidden Text Field as {label}|{termguid}
 The label & Guid for the term in the term store.

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How does it work behind-the-scenes?
 Hidden Text Field
 Display Name: {Taxonomy Field Name}_0
 Internal Name & Static Name:
 Pre-SP1: {Taxonomy Field Name}TaxHTField0
 Post-SP1: Random name similar to: k9cea7ffb6ad43dcb9ee90ce43506c7f
 TaxCatchAll & TaxCatchAllLabel Fields
 Each list containing a Taxonomy Field also has the hidden TaxCatchAll and
TaxCatchAllLabel fields – should add to your content types too.
 Display names "Taxonomy Catch All Column“ &
"Taxonomy Catch All Column1".
 Contains the WSS ID of each taxonomy value used in the item.
 Search uses these to do managed metadata searches and refinements
against list items without having to inspect all taxonomy fields in every list.

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How does it work behind-the-scenes?
 TaxonomyTaggingWebControl is a web control which behaves
similar to the Taxonomy Field Control
 It is bound to the term set in a similar manner to the Taxonomy Field.
 It may be used e.g. on custom search forms to pick a term to search
for.
 The TaxonomyFieldAdded site collection feature is required to
use managed metadata.
 It creates the TaxonomyHiddenList, sets up the event receivers and
adds the site columns.
 Activated on all site definitions except Blank Site.

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How can I use it programmatically?

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How can I use it programmatically?
 Namespace: Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy
 Term
 Name – gets the name using the current LCID
 Parent – parent term
 Terms – child terms
 IsAvailableForTagging
 TermSet
 CreateLabel(…)
 GetTerm(…), GetTerms(..) + overloads

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How can I use it programmatically?
 TermSet
 Name
 Group
 Terms
 IsAvailableForTagging
 IsOpenForTermCreation
 GetTerm(…), GetTerms(…), GetAllTerms(…) + overloads
 Group
 Name
 IsSiteCollectionGroup – for local term sets
 TermSets
 CreateTermSet(...) + overloads

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How can I use it programmatically?
 TermStore
 Name
 KeywordsTermSet – enterprise keywords.
 Session – the current taxonomy session.
 CommitAll() – Note: multiple commits are required if modifying
parent and child terms/term sets together.
 RollbackAll()
 GetTerm(...), GetTerms(...), GetTermSet(...), GetTermSets(...), GetGro
up(...) + overloads and similar. Used to get terms, term sets, and
groups by name without having to traverse the term hierarchy to find
them.

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How can I use it programmatically?
 TaxonomySession
 Starting point to access the term store programmatically.
 Constructor needs an SPSite. Provides context to locate the local
term sets specific to the site collection, and global term sets linked to
the web application.
 DefaultSiteCollectionTermStore – returns the term store in the
Managed Metadata Service defined as the default for the web
application.
 TermStores – all term stores accessible by name, e.g. if you have
multiple Managed Metadata Services.
 GetTerm(...), GetTerms(...), GetTermSets(...) + overloads and similar –
like those found in TermStore.
Taxonomy Term
Group Term Set Term
Session Store

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How can I use it programmatically?
 CAML to define the Taxonomy Field
<Field ID="{15181134-8839-47A9-9A38-D116FFFF0006}“
Type="TaxonomyFieldType“ Type=“TaxonomyFieldType “
DisplayName="Subject“
Name=“CustomSubject“ or
StaticName=“CustomSubject“ Type=“TaxonomyFieldTypeMulti”
Group=“Custom“
Required="FALSE“
DisplaceOnUpgrade="TRUE“
Description=“…“
ShowField="Term1033“ ShowField=“Term$Resources:core,Language;”
EnforceUniqueValues="FALSE“ />
 CAML to define the Hidden Text Field
<Field ID="{15181134-8839-47A9-9A38-D116EEEE0006}"
Type="Note"
DisplayName="Subject_0"
Name=“CustomSubjectTaxHTField0"
StaticName=“CustomSubjectTaxHTField0"
ShowInViewForms="FALSE"
Required="FALSE"
Hidden="TRUE" Note: When defining a content type, the
CanToggleHidden="TRUE" Hidden Text Field must be referenced
DisplaceOnUpgrade="TRUE“
RowOrdinal="0" /> BEFORE the Taxonomy Field.

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How can I use it programmatically?
 CAML to Bind Taxonomy Field to Hidden Text Field & Term Set
<Customization>
<ArrayOfProperty>
<Property>
<Name>SspId</Name> - SspId is the Term Store Id
<Value
xmlns:q1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
p4:type="q1:string"
xmlns:p4="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
a98dd270-8577-4db8-99e1-b9e894624fdc
</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>TermSetId</Name> - TermSetId binds the Taxonomy field to the
<Value
xmlns:q2="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Term Set.
p4:type="q2:string"
xmlns:p4="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
a7ae10cd-6c7c-4386-a1f2-7abec8e759e2
</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>TextField</Name> - TextField binds the Taxonomy field to the
<Value
xmlns:q3="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Hidden Text Field using its’ Field ID.
p4:type="q3:string"
xmlns:p4="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
15181134-8839-47A9-9A38-D116EEEE0006
</Value>
</Property>
…
</ArrayOfProperty>
</Customization> • This CAML goes inside the field definition. Useful for sandboxed solutions.
• Cannot bind the field to a different term set for each list instance without manually changing it.
• Also requires the GUIDs to be known up-front and embedded into the CAML.

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How can I use it programmatically?
 Code to Bind Taxonomy Field to Hidden Text Field & Term Set
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://site"))
{
TaxonomyField taxonomyField = (TaxonomyField)site.RootWeb.Fields*“Subject"+; - Gets the taxonomy field & hidden text field
SPField hiddenTextField = site.RootWeb.Fields*“Subject_0"+;
TaxonomySession session = new TaxonomySession(site); - Opens a new taxonomy session
TermStore termStore = session.DefaultSiteCollectionTermStore; - Uses the default site collection term store
Group group = termStore.Groups*“Enterprise Term Sets"+; - Selects a group & term set to bind to the field
TermSet termSet = group.TermSets["Subject"];
taxonomyField.TextField = hiddenTextField.Id; - TextField - Binds the hidden text field
taxonomyField.SspId = termSet.TermStore.Id; - SspId – Term Store Id
taxonomyField.TermSetId = termSet.Id; - TermSetId – binds the field to the term set
taxonomyField.AnchorId = Guid.Empty; - AnchorId – The term to use as the root term.
taxonomyField.Open = false; - Open – Whether users can enter new terms.
taxonomyField.AllowMultipleValues = false; - AllowMultipleValues – For multi-value fields.
taxonomyField.IsPathRendered = false; - IsPathRendered – Whether to show the full
taxonomyField.TargetTemplate = string.Empty; hierarchical path of the term.
- TargetTemplate - Web-relative URL of the
taxonomyField.Update(true); target page that is used to construct the hyperlink
} on each Term when the TaxonomyField is
rendered.

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How can I use it programmatically?
 Setting a Taxonomy Field Value programmatically
 As explained earlier, Taxonomy Field Values consist of 3 parts:
{wssid};#{label}|{termguid}
 Use this to set a value in an ItemAdding event receiver via the
AfterProperties.
 List item field values can be set easily using
TaxonomyField.SetFieldValue(…), passing in the list item, and either a Term
or a TaxonomyFieldValue.
 If you don’t use this, you have to set the Taxonomy Field with the
{wssid};#{label} and the Hidden Text Field with the {label}|{termguid}.
 A TaxonomyFieldValue can be created using:
TaxonomyFieldValue.PopulateFromLabelGuidPair("Label|<GUID>")
 This automatically adds the term to the TaxonomyHiddenList if not there
already.
 It also gets the WSS ID and sets up all 3 parts of the TaxonomyFieldValue.

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How can I use it programmatically?
 Querying for a taxonomy field value:
 Finding a specific term:
 SELECT Title FROM SCOPE() WHERE SCOPE = ‘All Sites’ AND
MyTaxonomyField = ‘#0termguid’
 Finding a term or any term below it in the term hierarchy
(descendents):
 SELECT Title FROM SCOPE() WHERE SCOPE = ‘All Sites’ AND
MyTaxonomyField = ‘#termguid’
 Only works on columns, not profile properties.

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What problems and limitations are
there?

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What problems and limitations are there?
 Managed Metadata is not supported by:
 InfoPath forms.
 SharePoint Workspace.
 Content Query Web Part.
 Office Document Information Panel.
 Editing in Datasheet Mode.
 Views cannot use Begins With or Contains operators.
 Calculated fields.
 Office 2007 and earlier.
 Acrobat X.
 SharePoint Designer Workflows read/write invalid values.
 Worked around using a Custom Action to get/set values programmatically.
 Possibly fixed in Dec 2011 CU.

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What problems and limitations are there?
 Import from CSV
 Separate CSV file for each term set.
 Does not support synonyms, translations of terms, or merging terms.
 Cannot predefine the term set and term IDs (GUID) – normally used
for:
 Binding fields to term sets.
 Importing data or site structure using managed metadata terms.
 Querying / filtering.
 Custom code can use the object model to import an entire term
store.
 Export to CSV not possible without writing code.
 Copying a site collection or content from one farm to another will
require the term store data to be copied over, i.e. backup &
restore of the MMS database.

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What problems and limitations are there?
 Profile properties using a Term Set:
 Hierarchical search not possible on profile properties, is possible on
list fields.
 Can be set as Required, but allows it to be empty "by design".
 Multi-Value taxonomy fields and profile properties do not work
properly in the Refinement Panel.
 & and " converted to Unicode special character equivalents
 TaxonomyItem.NormalizeName docs explain about & but not ".
 Managed Metadata term containing a comma is difficult to enter
into a taxonomy field – treated as multiple terms.
 List View Lookup Threshold allows by default up to 8 lookup fields
including taxonomy fields in a list. Cannot change this in SP Online.

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What problems and limitations are there?
 Sandbox (SharePoint Online / Office 365)
cannot programmatically access the Taxonomy namespace:
 Cannot programmatically bind fields to term sets.
 Cannot declaratively bind fields to term sets using CAML as the term
set Guids are not known.
 Cannot import terms with their Guids.
 Cannot export terms even programmatically.
 Cannot find out the term Guids, so cannot do anything which
requires the Guid, e.g. hierarchical queries.
 Cannot use the TaxonomyWebTaggingControl as it can only be bound
to a term set programmatically.

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Questions

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Resources
 Managed Metadata Overview
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424402.aspx
 Introduction to Managed Metadata
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-
managed-metadata-in-sharepoint-server-2010-HA101859256.aspx
 Managed Metadata Limitations
 http://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/2011/06/managed-metadata-column-
limitations/
 Managed metadata CSV input file format
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424396.aspx
 Querying on Managed Metadata Field Values
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff625182.aspx
 How to set Taxonomy Field Values programmatically
 http://nickhobbs.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/sharepoint-2010-how-to-set-
taxonomy-field-values-programmatically/

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Resources
 User Profile Property Using Term Set, Required Validation Does Not
Work
 http://nickhobbs.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/sharepoint-2010-bug-user-
profile-property-using-term-set-required-validation-does-not-work/
 Managed Metadata Converts Ampersand and Double Quotes to Unicode
 http://nickhobbs.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/sharepoint-2010-managed-
metadata-converts-ampersand-and-double-quotes-to-unicode/
 People Refinement Panel does not work properly with Multi-Value
taxonomy user profile properties
 http://nickhobbs.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/sharepoint-2010-bug-people-
refinement-panel-does-not-work-properly-with-multi-value-user-profile-
properties/
 Search Refinement Panel’s TaxonomyFilterGenerator Produces
Unexpected Results
 http://nickhobbs.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/sharepoint-2010-bug-search-
refinement-panels-taxonomyfiltergenerator-produces-unexpected-results/

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More information
Nick Hobbs
nick@nickhobbs.net
www.nickhobbs.net
www.linkedin.com/in/nhobbs