Microsoft has released a Preview version of SharePoint 2013. There are dozens of great new features included in the new version. The focus of this blog is the feature, Managed Metadata Navigation. Anyone who has managed a SharePoint farm utilizing multiple site collections knows the level of planning and time needed to manage consistent navigation with this architecture. For those who have not managed a multiple site collection SharePoint site, the issue is that navigation is not inherited by different site collections. This means that to have consistent navigation on different site collections, you have to either develop a custom feature that is deployed throughout the web application or you have to manually update the navigation on each site collection. With dozens of site collections, this can be a daunting task.
To fix this issue, SharePoint 2013 has introduced Managed Metadata Navigation. This valuable and easy-to-manage feature allows you to create and update navigation for all sites in the farm using the Managed Metadata Service Application, which was first introduced in SharePoint 2010. The new navigation management system makes it very easy to add a consistent universal navigation structure to all site collections in your farm.
There are two different locations to manage your Managed Metadata Navigation: Site Settings and Central Administration. If you only want to utilize your new menu in one site collection, you can use the Term Store Management page under Site Settings. If you want to be able to utilize Managed Metadata Navigation throughout all the site collections, you will need to head over to Central Administration.
Setting it all up
Setting up a basic Managed Metadata Navigation scheme is easy to complete. The following steps outline how to set up basic Managed Metadata Navigation for either single or multiple site collections.
Single Site Collection – Site Settings
Use this method if you only want to use the navigation menu in one site collection.
Go to the site you want to add the new Managed Metadata Navigation menu
Go into the Site Settings and Term Store Management under the Site Administration section
In the left navigation, expand the Site Collection – [your server name] section. You will see a new section named Site Navigation.
Highlight the Site Navigation section and click the drop down arrow
Choose Create Term
Enter the name for the navigation item and press enter
Enter any other menu items you would like to add to your navigation
Select one of the menu items. You will now see the configuration pages for that item in the main section of the page. (Note: There are multiple tabs for the configuration of the new navigation item.)
On the General tab, you can select whether an item is available for tagging, the language of the item, a description, default label, and other labels
Select the Navigation tab. This is the main tab for adding a simple navigation item. Enter any navigation hover text, select which menu the item is visible (global or current navigation), and the navigation node type. The navigation node type allows you to choose a simple link, header, or a term-driven page with a friendly URL. For simple navigation, we will select a simple link or header.
Click Save
Navigate back to Site Setting
Click on Navigation under the Look and Feel section
Under the Global Navigation section select Managed Navigation
On the left side of the page, select the node that contains your menu
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on OK
Your new Managed Metadata Navigation menu should now be displayed on your SharePoint 2013 site.
Multiple Site Collections – Central Administration
Use this method if you want to use the navigation menu across multiple site collections.
Open Central Administration for your SharePoint 2013 farm
Go to Application Management: Manage Service Applications
Click on the Managed Metadata Service application link
In the left column, click on the dropdown arrow next to the Managed Metadata Service node and click on New Group
Give the group a logical name such as Global Navigation
Click the drop down arrow next to your newly created group and choose New Term Set
Give the term set a logical name such as Top Nav Menu
Click on this node in the tree and review its settings in the main section of the page
Click on the Intended Use tab
Check the box next to Use this Term Set for Site Navigation
Click Save
Click the drop down arrow next to the new term set and choose Create Term
Add your menu items by typing in each name, press enter, and enter the next item
You can add sub-menu items by clicking the drop down next to any term and adding a new term under it
After creating all menu items, click on each one, and review its settings in the main section of the page
Click on the Navigation tab in the main section of the page
Edit the Navigation Hover Text to meet your needs
Select the Simple Link or Header radio button in the Navigation Node Type section
Edit the URL or click on the Browse button to select the link destination
Click the Save button
Repeat for each menu item
After updating all menu items, click on the main term set (Top Nav Menu in this example), and click on the Custom Sort tab in the main section of the page
Choose the sort option that suits your needs and reorder as necessary
Click Save
As you can see, there are many customization options available by clicking on the Site Navigation item in the left column of the page. The options in this area include general items (i.e., contact, stakeholders, submission policy), the intended use, custom sort, term driven pages, and custom properties.
To use the new Managed Metadata Navigation, you must now apply the menu to your site collections by leaving Central Administration on opening Site Settings.
Go to Site Settings on the site collection you want to apply the menu to
Click on Navigation under the Look and Feel section
Under the Global Navigation section select Managed Navigation
On the left side of the page, select the node that contains your menu
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on OK
In SharePoint 2013, Managed Metadata Navigation is intended to provide a solution to an issue that nearly everyone who manages SharePoint has run up against. No longer will you have to manually update navigation on multiple site collections or create a custom code solution to implement consistent site navigation. Utilizing SharePoint 2013’s Managed Metadata Navigation features can save hours of custom development work, and makes it easy to implement a highly usable and manageable navigation structure.
In future blog posts, we will explore the advanced features of Managed Metadata Navigation, including SEO Optimization and Term Driven Pages. Credera has extensive experience in designing, planning, and implementing SharePoint solutions. If you have questions about this blog post or SharePoint, please contact us.
Contact Us
Ready to achieve your vision? We're here to help.
We'd love to start a conversation. Fill out the form and we'll connect you with the right person.
Searching for a new career?
View job openings
