Lesson: Working with Managed Metadata

Creating a Term Store Group and Term Set

The following walk-through will show you how to create a new Term Group, Term Set, and Terms hierarchy. Because the Managed Metadata Service is shared by the entire Farm it is important to use a Term Group name that will not conflict with others.

You must have either the Standard or Enterprise version of SharePoint Server 2013 for this walk-through.

1. Create a new Term Group within the Managed Metadata Service named "Demo Group".
   1. Click the Settings menu button and select the Site settings options.
   2. Click the Term store management link from the Site Administration group on the Site Settings page.
   3. Right-click the Managed Metadata Service and choose New Group from the menu.
   4. Type "<<Your Name>> Demo Group" in the field, adding your name to the group name will make sure it is unique within your farm.
   5. Right-click the <<Your Name>> Demo Group and select the New Term Set option.
   6. Type "Contoso Departments" in the field provided.
   7. Right-click Contoso Departments and select the Create Term option.
   8. Type "Accounting" in the field provided and press the Enter key.
   9. Repeat the previous step and add "Marketing" and "Information Technology" to the Term Set.
2. Add an abbreviation for the Information Technology term.
   1. Click to select the Information Technology term.
   2. In the term properties area, type "IT" in the Other Labels field.
   3. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Term's property page.

Creating Metadata Columns in Lists and Libraries

This walk-through will show you how to create a new custom list and add a new column that is linked to the Contoso Departments Term Set created in the previous walk-through.

1. Create a new list named "Metadata Demo" from the Custom List template.
   1. Click the Settings menu and choose the Add an app option.
   2. Select the Custom List template from the template choices.
   3. Type "Metadata Demo" in the Name field text box.
   4. Click the Create button to complete creating the list.
2. Add a Managed Metadata column, linked to the Contoso Departments Term Set, to the Metadata Demo list.
   1. Click the Metadata Demo link in the Quick Launch menu to navigate to the new list.
   2. Click the Create Column link on the LIST tab toolbar.
   3. Type "Department" in the Column name field.
   4. Choose the Managed Metadata radio-button option for the columns data type.
   5. Expand the Managed Metadata Service -> <<Your Name>> Demo Group and choose Contoso Departments Term Set in the Term Set Settings area.
   6. Click the OK button to complete creating the column.
3. Add a new item to the Metadata Demo list and test the Managed Metadata column.
   1. Click the new item link.
   2. Type "First Item" in the Title field text box.
   3. Type "Ac" in the Department field and click to choose the Accounting [Contoso Departments] choice that appears below.
   4. Click the Save button to save the new item.

Publishing Content Types

Another feature of the Managed Metadata service is to replicate Content Types from a designated site collection hub to all other site collections sharing the Managed Metadata service. This allows Farm administrators to define a Content Type in one time in one place and have it available to use throughout the Farm. This feature would only be beneficial to Farms that have multiple site collections.

To facilitate content type replication, the Farm administrator must first configure the Managed Metadata service to point to a specific site collection as the content type hub. The following image comes from the Central Administration web site properties page of the Managed Metadata service:

The first time the Farm administrator visits this page, the Content Type hub is an empty text box that the Farm administrator types in whatever site collection path they want to use. To change it after it has been set the first time, you must use PowerShell commands.

Once the hub has been defined, the Farm administrator can then configure the Managed Metadata Service Connection to consume content types from the Content Type Gallery of the hub site collection. The following image is a screen shot of the Managed Metadata Service Connection properties:

Content types created in the site collection defined as the hub will have an extra link, Manage publishing for this content type, in the Settings group of the content type configuration page.

This link will take site collection administrators to a page where they can control publishing for that specific content type.

Creating a Term Store Group and Term Set

1. Navigate to your team site.
2. Create a new Group, Term Set, and Terms.

   You must have either the Standard or Enterprise version of SharePoint Server 2013 for this exercise.

   1. Click the Settings icon and choose the Site Settings option.
   2. Click the Term store management link listed under the Site Administration heading.
   3. Right-click the Managed Metadata Service and choose New Group from the menu.

      If you do not see the New Group option, it is most likely because your account has not been added to the Term Store Administrators list. You will need to contact your farm administrator to perform that task.

   4. Type "<<Your Name>> Location" in the new group field; adding your name to the group name will make sure it is unique within your farm.
   5. Right-click the new Location group and choose New Term Set from the drop-down menu.
   6. Type "Cities" in the new Term Set field.
   7. Right-click the new Cities Term Set and choose Create Term from the menu.
   8. Type "Atlanta" in the new Term field and press Enter (the system will automatically create a new empty term for you to type something into when you press Enter). Keep typing cities until you have a list that looks similar to the following image:
   9. Click the Cities term set to view the Properties page of the term set.
   10. Click the Open radio button in the Submission Policy settings of the Cities term set.
   11. Click the Save button to save the changes to the term set.
3. Add Other Labels for some of the city terms.
   1. Click the Atlanta term and type "ATL" in the Other Labels field.
   2. Click the Save button to save the new abbreviation.
   3. Add additional abbreviations to some of the cities in the Term Set.
4. Click your site's title link in the Top Link menu to navigate back to the home page of the site.

Creating Managed Metadata Columns

1. Create a new custom list named "Metadata Test" for testing managed metadata columns.

   You must have either the Standard or Enterprise version of SharePoint Server 2013 for this exercise.

   1. Click the Settings menu and choose Add an app from the drop-down list.
   2. Click the Custom List template from the template choices.
   3. Type "Metadata Test" in the Name field and click the Create button to create the new list.
2. Add a Managed Metadata column to the Metadata Test list and link it to the Cities term set.
   1. Click the Metadata Test link in the Quick Launch menu to navigate to the new list.
   2. Click the Create Column link on the LIST tab toolbar.
   3. Type "City" in the Column name field and click the Managed Metadata option radio button to set the data type of the column.
   4. Scroll down to the Term Set Settings area, click the arrow next to Managed Metadata Service to expand it, expand Location, and then click to select Cities.
   5. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Create Column dialog to add the new column to the list.
3. Add a new item to the Metadata Test list and test the metadata field.
   1. Click the new item link in the Metadata test list.
   2. Type "First Item" in the Title field and then type "At" in the City field and verify an IntelliSense list opens below your typing with a suggestion of Atlanta.
   3. Click Atlanta in the suggestion list and click the Save button to save the item.
4. Add a new fill-in entry to the Cities term set.
   1. Click the new item link in the Metadata test list.
   2. Type "Second Item" in the Title field and then type "Chicago" in the City field. Verify that no suggestions display for that city.
   3. Click the Save button and verify that you get the error The given term is not valid.
   4. Click the Browse for a valid choice icon to the right of the City field text box.
   5. Click the Add New Item link in the Select: City dialog.
   6. Type "Chicago" in the new item field and then press Enter.
   7. Click the OK button to close the Select: City dialog.
   8. Click the Save button to save the new item.