Quick Managed Metadata Overview

Managed Metadata is an interesting and powerful new feature of SharePoint 2010. This is a very high-level overview of the feature. I’d suggest following along in your own SharePoint 2010 environment.

1. The Termset

A Managed Metadata Termset is a hierarchy of terms that are managed at a central location and that can be made available for use as metadata on SharePoint entities, like list items.

Here’s how it looks when using managed metadata in a list column. In this screenshot, we’re adding a new item to a list, and populating the MM1 column with a term from our Termset:

1. Managed Metadata at the Site Collection level

A site owner or content administrator can easily create and manage a Termset at the site collection level. The Termset can be used throughout the site collection.

Let’s look at one way to do this:

1. Create a column (can create a site column or a list column)
2. Choose field type "Managed Metadata"
3. Select "Customize your termset"
4. Create a Termset hierarchy

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1. Managed Metadata at the Enterprise level

Another way to create Managed Metadata Termsets is at the Enterprise level. To do this, we take advantage of the new Service Application model in SharePoint 2010. A full discussion of Service Applications is outside the scope of this posting, but in a nutshell think of them as services that can be consumed by any application in any farm that can access them. We can create a Managed Metadata Service Application, and then create Termsets in this Service App that can be used in any site across the enterprise.

Let’s look at how we can set this up:

1. Ensure the Managed Metadata Web Service is running
1. Open Central Administration
2. Go to "System Settings"
3. Click "Manage Services on Server"
4. Ensure the Managed Metadata Web Service is started

1. Create new Managed Metadata Service Application
1. Open Central Administration
2. Go to "Application Management"
3. Click on "Manage Service Application"
4. Click "New" in the Ribbon
1. Select "Managed Metadata Application"

5. Fill in the form to create the Service Application

1. Click on the newly created Managed Metadata Service
2. Assign a Term Store Administrator and Create a termset hierarchy

e. This Managed Metadata Termset can now be used to create a Managed Metadata column in any list across the enterprise.

1. A few things a site manager can do with Managed Metadata:
1. Easily tag items with metadata that is highly organized, and consistent throughout the site.
2. Centrally manage the terms in a Termset that are used across the site collection, or the enterprise.
3. Enable metadata navigation

1. A few things a user can do with Managed Metadata
1. Tag content using the new social collaboration features in SharePoint 2010
2. Filter content using metadata navigation
3. Search for content using standardized metadata terms