SharePoint Information Architecture Integrating taxonomy & metadata Shawn Shell, Consejo Inc. Stephanie Lemieux, Earley & Associates J.Boye, Aarhus November, 2009
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SharePoint Information Architecture Integrating taxonomy & metadata Shawn Shell, Consejo Inc. Stephanie Lemieux, Earley & Associates J.Boye, Aarhus November, 2009 About Shawn Shell Founder and Principal Consultant for Consejo, Inc. More than 20 years in technology; 10 in content technologies Internationally recognized expert on SharePoint products and technologies Primary analyst and author of the CMS Watch SharePoint Report (http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/report) Co-author Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide (Addison-Wesley) Co-developer of the original connector between MCMS and SharePoint for Microsoft Developer of the SharePoint 2007 version of the SocialText Wiki integration with SharePoint About Stephanie Lemieux Taxonomy Practice Lead Experience implementing taxonomy across different tools: CM, DM, Intranet, Faceted Search, DAM… Recent clients: Motorola, American Greetings, AstraZeneca, Ford Foundation Author of “Integrating Taxonomy with CMS” in TIMAF Information Management Best Practices 2009, Bob Boiko ed. SharePoint is very easy to implement badly 4 Typical SharePoint complaints I can’t remember where to find anything Search is like a “random document generator” I’d rather go back to fileshares than have to upload content there © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 5 Typical SharePoint Projects 6 Biz Reqs Implement Implementtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Business Req’s Implement Business Req’s Where is the information architecture? Examples courtesy of Lulu Pachuau: http://www.slideshare.net/LuluP/information-architecture-and-sharepoint Implement Research Requirements Use Cases & Personas Site Map & Navigation The IA Process Taxonomy Content Modeling/Me tadata Wireframes © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Prototyping/ Testing Good IA needs a system that: 8 Supports control & standards Has user friendly interfaces (esp. tagging) Understands relationships Hierarchy Synonyms Associations Manages metadata & taxonomy values © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Taxonomy 101 Products System for classification Action figures Improves search tools and mechanisms Common language for relating and sharing concepts, content © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Games Board games Card games Car Preferred term SYN: Automobile Vehicle Synonyms fr-CA: Voiture en-UK: Auto es-CO: Carro Translations and regional variants 9 Why use taxonomy? Tagging content with taxonomy creates access points that can be leveraged for multiple purposes Dynamic publishing Search Records management Workflow BI & reporting © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Navigation 10 Before we start… some basics Site Collections Collection of sites Primary source of main navigation Container for Sites lists/libraries Primary source of “quick launch” navigation List: Basic unit of storage, Lists collection of items Libraries Library: advanced list © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 11 SharePoint columns & content types Content Types Collection of columns Associated policies, workflow, templates Columns Individual metadata item Can reference lists or other data sources Lists © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 12 Boundaries & inheritance 13 Content types inherit columns from parents Content types are specific to a site collection or a site & its children Columns follow the same rules 13 More about columns 14 Different kinds… Date Number Free text Controlled list (a.k.a Lookup) Etc. You can also create custom column types Content display 15 © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Advanced search (OOTB) 16 Full text keywords Extended metadata properties Navigation 17 Top-level navigation shows sub sites and peers Quick launch shows “current site” elements © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 All navigation approaches are configurable (largely) SharePoint strengths Easy to create new structures Navigation is largely automatic Easy to create metadata and connect to LOB systems Many ways to consume content Office integration Federated search built-in © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 18 Weaknesses 19 Physically oriented Constructs are bound to site collections Metadata is simplistic No metadata/taxonomy management Vocabulary lookups limited No hierarchical metadata …or any kind of relationships! OOTB search reflects all limitations © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Topics Architecture Accounting Construction Engineering Civil Mechanical Environment Finance No hierarchy 20 Metadata can only be tagged and stored as flat controlled vocabulary – no hierarchy possible Possible Possible Regions • • • • Asia Pacific EMEA Latin America North America © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Countries • • • • • • Cambodia Canada Chad China Columbia Croatia Not Possible Geographic regions • Asia Pacific • China • Japan • Europe • France • Switzerland Native thesaurus 21 Expansions (a.k.a synonyms) E.g. HR = Human Resources = Employee Relations Replacements (a.k.a. use) E.g. for NTK or W2K use Windows 2000 © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 <XML ID="Microsoft Search Thesaurus"> <thesaurus xmlns="x-schema:tsSchema.xml"> <expansion> <sub>human resources</sub> <sub>hr</sub> <sub>employee relations</sub> </expansion> </thesaurus> </XML> <XML ID="Microsoft Search Thesaurus"> <thesaurus xmlns="x-schema:tsSchema.xml"> <replacement> <pat>NT5</pat> <pat>W2K</pat> <sub>Windows 2000</sub> </replacement> </thesaurus> </XML> No ability to store any other types of relationships (e.g. Associative) MOSS search & taxonomy 22 Lack of metadata relationships leads to lack of advanced search functions OOTB Search Term = “Rights” Related terms © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Navigating “down” through Taxonomy Hierarchy No taxonomy management No place to store Term definitions Scope notes History Translations No integrity in lookup values Implies need for external taxonomy management © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 23 And then it gets technical… Content databases should be less than 100 Gb Site collections are bound by content database Navigation is “naturally” only within a Site Collection © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 24 Q: I have SharePoint, but I still want good findability. What are my options? a) Pray b) Ace OOTB IA features c) Customize d) Buy 3rd party add-ons 25 Navigation tweaks Use web interface to show or hide navigation Use SharePoint Designer to manipulate elements like main and “quick launch” navigation Create new master page to create more unified experience Use alternative “navigation providers” © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 26 More on improving navigation 27 List views in standard web parts RSS feeds and XSLT (OOTB or custom) Content query web part with XSLT Custom part to leverage search Faceted navigation © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Improving tagging 28 Custom event handler or workflow to automate tagging Location User profile Custom tagging interface Cascading list add-on Taxonomy management tool connector Auto-tagging tools © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Basic tagging options Custom tagging interface Cascading list add-on http://sharepointsnippets.com/post/2009/01/Cascading-Dropdown--Configuration.aspx © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 29 Advanced tagging options www.kwizcom.com © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 E.g. from Wordmap 30 Auto-tagging 31 E.g. from SmartLogic © Earley & Associates 2009 Auto-tagging 32 E.g. from SmartLogic © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Search Biggest pain point in MOSS 2007 (“random document generator”) Basic problems: Each content source has potentially different metadata/vocabulary Most customers do nothing to ensure search works Most end users don’t have good search expectations MOSS OOTB interface is limited © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 33 Improving search Metadata mapping Keep more relevant content near the “top” Use search scopes/display groups Use authoritative pages/URL removal Leverage best bets Construct “canned” searches Customize advanced search Analytics Faceted search © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 34 Add-on: Codeplex faceted search 35 Free, but leverages SharePoint structure, so limited to flat lists Connector: SmartLogic e.g. 36 Refine / Suggest with preferred terms and relationships © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Connector: SchemaLogic e.g. 37 Model content types & metadata outside SharePoint Creating hierarchy outside metadata Combination of sites and libraries to create part of the hierarchy (limited solution) Facet on physical location to surface that in search Limitation: perpetuates physical storage paradigm © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 How much do you need? 39 External search tool Connector Taxonomy-driven faceted search BT/NT thesaurus Auto-tagging Better UI for search or tagging Basic faceted search (no/limited hierarchy) Basic add-on MOSS OOTB Fully flexible UX Deep indexing Configurable search Advanced search, limited configuration Navigation based on site architecture © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Conclusions 40 Don’t skip IA process just because it’s SharePoint Master OOTB features first Keep your eye on consistency across sites, site collections through governance Select tools based on high-value requirements © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Resources Free four part series on improving search and IA www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepointsearch-and-information-architecture Codeplex: www.codeplex.com WSS Demo (Metadata and Content Types) www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx Shawn Shell: CMS Watch SharePoint Analyst & Consultant (also co-author of this session) www.consejoinc.com (blog: http://blog.consejoinc.com/) www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/Report/ © Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009 Tool list (partial) 42 Smartlogic (www.smartlogic.com) - taxo Synaptica (www.synapticacentral.com/) - taxo Wordmap (www.wordmap.com) - taxo SchemaLogic (www.schemalogic.com) - taxo MetaVis (www.metavistech.com) Ontolica (www.ontolica.com) - search Concept Searching (http://www.conceptsearching.com) Cogniva (www.cogniva.ca) - tagging SharePart XXL (www.sharepartxxl.com) - tagging Kwizcom (www.kwizcom.com) - tagging Notable blogs Consejo Earley & Associates http://gilbane.com/blog/ CMS Watch http://www.earley.com/blog Gilbane Group http://blog.consejoinc.com http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/trends SharePoint Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ 43 Other resources & downloads SharePoint IA Jumpstart Series – 4 free recordings http://www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepoi nt-search-and-information-architecture SharePoint Search Portal http://sharepointsearch.com/default.aspx SharePoint End User Content Team (MSFT) http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/d efault.aspx WSS Demo (Metadata and Content Types) http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx 44 Other resources & downloads CodePlex http://www.codeplex.com Taxonomy Tagging Starter Kit http://cks.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.asp x?ReleaseId=2830 Popular Page Web Part http://popularpages.codeplex.com/ 45 QUESTIONS? Stephanie Lemieux Taxonomy Practice Lead Earley & Associates E: [email protected] P: 847-704-0438 W: www.earley.com © 2009 Shawn Shell Principal Consejo, Inc E: [email protected] P: 773-271-1474 W: www.consejoinc.com