Describes taxonomy and metadata implementation in SharePoint 2007, including other findability topics such as search, navigation and 3rd party add-ons.

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

2. SharePoint is very
easy to implement
badly
2

3. 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

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

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

6. 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
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7. Columns & content types
Content Collection of
columns
Types Associated policies,
workflow, templates
Columns Individual metadata item
Can reference lists or
other data sources
Lists
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8. Boundaries & Inheritance
Content types
are specific to Content types
a site inherit from
collection parents
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9. More about columns
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 Different kinds…
 Date
 Number
 Free text
 Controlled list
(a.k.a Lookup)
 Etc.
You can also create
custom column
types
© Earley & Associates 2009

10. Content display
10
© Earley & Associates 2009

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

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

13. Strengths
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 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

14. Weaknesses
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 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

15. No hierarchy
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 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

16. Native thesaurus
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 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

17. 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
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18. Improving navigation
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 List views
 RSS feeds
 Pre‐constructed searches that look like
navigation
 E.g. Content query web part with XSLT
 Faceted navigation
© Earley & Associates 2009

19. Improving tagging
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 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…!

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

21. Connectors
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 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

22. The underlying issue
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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

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

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

25. Auto‐tagging
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© Earley & Associates 2009 E.g. from SmartLogic

26. Improving search
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 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

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

28. Connector: SmartLogic e.g.
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Refine / Suggest
with preferred
terms and
relationships
© Earley & Associates 2009

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

30. How much do you need?
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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

31. What to expect in 2010
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 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)

32. Conclusions
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 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

33. 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

34. Tool list
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 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

35. 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