Sharepoint 2010 : Administering Enterprise Content Management - Document Management (part 7) - Term Store and Term Sets

1.13 Term Store and Term Sets

The Managed Metadata Service provides a managed term store that is used to store both keywords and term sets by default. It is possible to store keywords and term sets in different instances of the Managed Metadata Service, and it is also possible to create multiple instances of the Managed Metadata Service that serve site collection within a given Web application. The term store acts as a repository for terms to be used to tag items. You can combine terms to make term sets that then become available Managed Metadata fields. When creating or modifying a Managed Metadata field, you may select a term set from the term store or define a new custom term set on the fly. When it is defined, the new term set will be stored in the term store and will be available for management and/or use elsewhere within SharePoint. The use of a centralized term store enriches navigation, search, sort and filter, policy, and workflow functions. You can also track the usage of unmanaged terms to which you want to apply structure in the future.

Figure 18 shows the term store in action. The interface is divided into two sections. The left section provides a tree view of the term store, including groups, term sets, and individual terms as expressed in a Term hierarchy. Also on the left is a language selector, which enables the management of terms in multiple languages, and a search box for quickly finding a specific term set or term you want to manage.

Figure 18. The term store management interface

Term Store Management, Groups, and Scoping

Term sets are managed within the context of a group. Groups are created within the term store. Term store administrators are permitted to create new groups at the enterprise level. These groups and their associated terms and term sets are available anywhere that service is consumed. The scope of term sets is tightly constrained—term sets created at the site collection level are managed at that level, through a group that is automatically generated for the site collection. Terms and term sets managed at the site collection level can be promoted to the enterprise level by using a copy or move operation. If a useful term set is created at the site collection level within a site and a term store administrator determines that the term set is useful and should be available enterprise-wide, she can move that term set to the enterprise taxonomy.

Although the Term Store Management tool is ubiquitous across the various levels at which it is accessible, users will only be able to see local and/or enterprise content for which they have access. Enterprise content that they don’t have permission to access will be visible, but it will be noneditable.

The management hierarchy present in the term store is as follows:

• Managed Metadata Service (term store administrators)

  • Group (group managers and contributors)

    • Term Set (owner)

Site collection administrators are granted access to manage the group associated with the site collection by default, whereas farm administrators are not granted access to manage the Enterprise Term Store by default. When a term store is directly selected within the Term Store Manager interface, the configuration options shown in Table 7 are available.

Table 7. Term Store Configuration Settings

SETTING	EXPLANATION
Available Service Applications	A site may consume multiple metadata applications. Select the one to see in the tree view.
Sample Import	The SharePoint Metadata Manager can import a term set from a UTF-8 CSV format file. Use the sample file as a template for creating import files. Then import the file into the group that you want to create a new term set.
Term Store Administrators	You can enter user names, group names, or e-mail addresses. Separate them with semicolons. These users will be permitted to create new term set groups and assign users to the group manager role.
Default Language	Select the default language for all metadata in the system. All terms must have a label defined in their default language.
Working Languages	Select the translation of languages for terms in the term store. This will allow a term to have language-specific labels and translations.

Configuring Groups

Each group consists of its associated configuration options and a set of term sets. Groups can be created by a term store manager, or they can have been created automatically for a specific site collection. At the group level, it is possible to create new term sets or to import them from a CSV file. To manage the settings of a given group, select the group in the left pane. Table 8 provides a summary of the configuration properties that will become available in the right pane, and Figure 19 shows the Edit Control Block menu available for a group. To access this menu, select the group from the left pane and click the small arrow to the right of the group tree item, or you can right-click the group tree item to view the menu.

Table 8. Group Configuration Settings

SETTING	EXPLANATION
Group Name	Type a new name for this group as you want it to appear in the hierarchy.
Description	Type descriptive text to help users better organize and use term sets in this group.
Group Managers	Enter user names, group names, or e-mail addresses to grant group manager permissions. Separate multiple users with semicolons. These users will have contributor permissions and will also be able to add users to the contributor role.
Contributors	Enter user names, group names, or e-mail addresses. Separate them with semicolons. These users will have full permission to edit terms and term set hierarchies within this group.

Figure 19. The Group Edit Control Block menu

Configuring Term Sets and Terms

Each term set consists of its associated configuration options and a hierarchical set of terms. The terms are expressed in tree view, just as the user sees them when filling a field or tagging an item. To manage the settings of a given term set, select the term set in the left pane. Table 9 provides a summary of the configuration properties available in the right pane.

Table 9. Term Set Configuration Settings

SETTING	EXPLANATION
Term Set Name	Type a new name for this term set as you want it to appear in the hierarchy.
Description	Type descriptive text to help users understand the intended use of this term set.
Owner	Identify the primary user or group of this term set.
Contact	Type an e-mail address for term suggestion and feedback. If this field is left blank, the suggestion feature will be disabled.
Stakeholders	This information is used to track people and groups in the organization that should be notified before major changes are made to the term set. You can enter multiple users or groups.
Submission Policy	When a term set is closed, only metadata managers can add terms. When it is open, users can add terms from a tagging application. This option controls community involvement in the creation of new terms within the term set.
Available for Tagging	Select whether this term set is available to be used by end users for tagging. When the check box is cleared, this term set will not be visible to most users.
Custom Sort Order	A custom sort can be applied to child terms below this term set. Using a custom sort order will ensure that terms appear in a consistent order, regardless of the language or any changes in default labels. If you select to use a custom sort order, you will be provided with a list of the terms and given the ability to specify their sort order.

It is also possible to copy, reuse, move, or delete a term set. To do so, select the term set from the left pane and then click the small arrow to the right of the term set tree item, or you can right-click the term set tree item to view the menu shown in Figure 20. When you want to reuse a term set, you must select a destination for the term set. When you copy a term set, you are making a new term set that will include reused versions of the terms. The source terms will remain in the original term set. Moving and deleting a term set works as you would expect. Keep in mind that existing content will remain tagged, as it was before a deletion.

Figure 20. The Term Set Edit Control Block menu

Terms are configured in much the same way term sets are. Begin by selecting the term you want to configure from the left pane, and the configuration properties will appear in the right pane. Table 10 provides a summary of the configuration properties available in the right pane.

Table 14-10. Term Configuration Settings

SETTING	EXPLANATION
Term Name	This value is a display value and cannot be modified. To modify the name of the term itself, double-click the term name in the right pane and enter a new name.
Available For Tagging	Select whether this term set is available to be used by end users for tagging. When the check box is cleared, this term set will not be visible to most users.
Language	Select a language for the labels for the term you would like to edit. After you select a language, all of the labels you add for that language will be made available for editing.
Description	Descriptions will help users know when to use this term and allow them to disambiguate among similar terms.
Default Label	Enter one label as the default for this language.
Other Labels	Enter synonyms and abbreviations for this term. You must enter a word or phrase per line, but you can enter as many other labels as needed.
Member Of	This table provides information such as a list of term sets where the term is being used, the parent term, the owner, and if the listed term is the source term.

It is also possible to copy, reuse, move, merge, or deprecate a term. To do so, select the term from the left pane and then click the small arrow to the right of the term tree item, or you can right-click the term tree item to view the menu shown in Figure 21. When you reuse a term, you select a destination for the term set. When you copy a term set, you are making a new term set that will include the properties and source of the original term. When you merge a term, you select another term with which to merge. Merging a term into another will collapse all of the synonyms and translations of the existing term into the selected term. Although content already tagged with the existing term will still be tagged as before, the merging of the term is irreversible. Deprecating a term will effectively disable it, making it unavailable for use by users but retaining it for use within the taxonomy. Moving and deleting a term set work as you would expect. Keep in mind that existing content will remain tagged as it was before the deletion.

Figure 21. The Term Edit Control Block menu