SharePoint 2010 Navigation Hierarchies and Key Filters

You've probably noticed that I've had a few posts on the SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata feature since I got back from the SharePoint conference.  We get excited about this kind of thing because metadata is a big part of all of the software we build here. But some people are probably saying "Why should we get so excited about new metadata features in SharePoint?  The new UI and improved capacity are really the neat things about SharePoint 2010." Well, I guees it all depends on your point of view. The way I see it SharePoint is all about colloboration and document / records management.  The more easily you can work within SharePoint and the more easily you can find stuff, the more productive a knowledge worker can be.  So that's why I thought I would cover off the new Navigation Hierarchies and Key Filters in SharePoint 2010 today. Once you have your metadata into SharePoint you can start taking advantage of it, and navigation hierarchies and key filters are 2 great examples of how you can leverage metadata in SharePoint.

Navigation Hierarchies

Navigation Hierarchies appear in the left hand pane of the new user interface and allow users to navigate metadata taxonomy in order to filter the view of lists / document libraries etc. For example, I've setup a document library that contains documents with different security classifications.  To do this I've added a column called Classification that has possible values of PUBLIC, CONFIDENTIAL and INTERNAL. Here is the document library:

 
 (click to see larger image)
  
I can turn on the navigation hierarchy for this library by going into the Document Library settings, selecting Metadata Navigation Settings, and then adding the Classification column to the list of Selected Hierarchy Fields.

 

Once this Setting is in place we can go back to our document linrary and we will see Classification as a available field in the Hierarchy:

By clicking on the CONFIDENTIAL value in the hierarchy, I will see only the CONFIDENTIAL documents in my library.

 

Maybe not that impressive in a document library that only has 15 documents, but in a library that may contain a few hundred documents this would really help users filter down to specific documents they want to find and work with.

Key Filters

Key Filters also appear in the left hand pane of the user interface just below the navigation hierarchy. Key Filters operate in a similar fashion to the navigation hierarchy.  They are also used to filter a list or document library.  The difference is that the user does not have to navigate a hierarchy, they can simply type in the value they wish to filter on, or in some cases select the value from a drop down list.  When the user clicks Apply, their list or library will be filtered based on the value. 

In order to configure the Key Filters option, the administrator goes into the Document Settings, Metadata Navigation Settings, and then adds the Classification column to the Selected Key Filters Fields.

These features should help your users get more value out of the metadata.  If you are interested in using metadata for SharePoint security see the Metadata Security blog.

Comments

[Henrik]

Hi, do you know if there is a way to navigate metadata taxonomy per site, site collection, web application or farm instead of per document library. The Mananged Metadata is a step forward for farm-wide columns but without the global navigation function it really don´t delivers the whole way.

Regards,
// Henrik

[Charlie]

Hello Henrik,

Yes that is a good point. I could see that as being very valuable. I am not aware of any way to do that currently.

[Henrik]

Hi, well, the index and search components comes to the rescue (again). Create a managed property for the indexed column and create an interface for searching and displaying the results. But I would like MS to provide this out of the box.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi There,

I love the capability this hierarchy of terms provides for navigation within a library, but the only way I've seen it exposed is via the tree view control under the Quick Launch (unless Quick Launch is not shown).

What I don't like is the fact that after a few clicks the tree view returns to showing the entire contents of the current site, not just the hierarchy of the current library or list.

To me, this makes the display a bit clumsy. Have I missed something? Is there a way to get the tree view to show just the context of the currently displayed library or list, or is there in fact another web part / navigation element that can do that for me?

Regards,
Trevor

[anamorph]

Interesting ... Is there a way for adding subcategories to the top level catogeries provided by the metadata column ? and how do you manage hierarchies between categories and subcategories ?

[Charlie]

Hello anamorph,

Subcategories should be possible if you use the new SP 2010 managed metadata field. In the managed term set you can have multiple levels to a hierarchy

[SharePointFrank]

Btw. you can navigate the complete taxonomy alphabetically as A-Z index directory (like a glossary) or as hierarchical tree view using additional web parts found here:

http://www.layer2.de/en/products/Pages/Tag-Directory-Web-Part-SharePoint-2010.aspx

It links to tag profiles or alternatively directly to the tagged content.

And there is tagging support as well, e.g. content-based suggestions or auto-tagging...

[Karen Tausher]

I love this feature! Do you know if there is any way to grab these as web parts (the filter and navigation) to plug into a different page?

[errzulie]

Hi.
Is it possible to order the metadata heirarchy?
For example in your example of Public, Confidential and Internal, is there a way of putting them in any order you specify? I could have sworn when I first added the Heirarchy Fields I wanted, it displayed them in the order I selected them, but now Sharepoint seems to sort them in (what looks like) a completely random order (though presumably does have a logic to it), but this order is not how I want it, and I don't know how to change it!

[Nancy]

All I want is to be able to place the key filters box ABOVE the quick launch navigation to avoid having to scroll down. My QL is lengthy so this scrolling is annoying for the user. Is this possible?

[Michael Ambrose]

I'm confused to whats to stop you simply adding a column in SP2007 and calling it metadata, then filter on that column. Seems a bit of a cop out to me?

Being an expert in SP2007 maybe i'm missing the point but i haven't seen anything in 2010 that i couldn't accomplish in 2007. But i hear the server back-end is much better!

[Richard]

Does anyone know if placing the key filters and/or navigation hierarchy at the top of the quicklaunch is possible (as per the question from Nancy). Having to scroll back up to the filtered list results is quite annoying.

[Ezhislav Borkovski]

Hi! Its a very interesting feature, but now am am looking for a way of customizing it.