Managed Metadata
The Managed Metadata
column type is available only when you have SharePoint Server installed
(not SPF). It is similar to the Lookup column type in the fact that it,
too, displays options to the user from a predefined list of options
that is not part of the column itself. However, the Managed Metadata
column type is more advanced both in the way it is displayed to the end
users and in the options administrators have to manage the items
available for the users to choose from.
Unlike with a Lookup column,
the items the users choose from in a Managed Metadata column type do
not come from another list. Instead, the values come either from an
enterprise term repository (managed by the administrator) or from a
custom term set that you can create in the site collection.
The terms in the term sets
can be hierarchical. For example, instead of having a flat list of
products for the user to choose from (as in the example in the “Lookup (Information Already on This Site)”
section earlier in this chapter), the administrator of the Managed
Metadata service can create a term set that has product categories with
products in each category. This can evolve to more levels of hierarchy
if required. For instance, you might have a category for Mobile Phones
and under it the names of the manufacturers, and under each
manufacturer the model numbers of the phones, as shown in Figure 30.
The user interface for this
type of column is a textbox with an icon next to it. The user can
either write the term in the text box or click the icon to open the
dialog that shows the terms that are available, as shown in Figure 30.
Figure 31 shows the configuration options for the Managed Metadata Column type.
Allow Multiple Values
For
the Allow Multiple Values option, you set whether the users can choose
multiple terms. You should not select this option if you want the users
to be able to select just a single term.
Display Value
The Display Value option
sets how the terms will be displayed to a user viewing the properties
of the file or list item. Because the terms may be hierarchical,
showing just the value of the term (the term label) can lead to
confusion if there are two terms with the same label but under
different hierarchies.
For example, if you have a term
set that has mobile phones under the manufacturers, and if two
different manufacturers have the same name for a mobile phone, you will
not know by looking at the label which mobile phone it is unless you
select Display the Entire Path to the Term in the Field, which displays
the entire hierarchy as the value of the column.
