getDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore() – JavaScript runtime error: Unable to get property ‘toString’ of undefined or null reference

Posted on April 10, 2013 by cann0nf0dder

Today I was venturing in the world of JavaScript and SharePoint 2013 Hosted Apps. I was trying to perform a simple JavaScript that access the Managed Term Store to bring back results.

Take a look at my code below.


var context;

var termStore;

var groups;

$(document).ready(function () {
var scriptbase = _spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl + "/_layouts/15/";
  $.getScript(scriptbase + "SP.Runtime.js",   function () {
      $.getScript(scriptbase + "SP.js", function () {
        $.getScript(scriptbase + "SP.Taxonomy.js", function () {
              context = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
              //Call your code here.
              defaultTermStores();
        });
      });
   });
});

function defaultTermStore() {
session = SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession.getTaxonomySession(context);
termStore = session.getDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore();
context.load(session);
context.load(termStore);
context.executeQueryAsync(successDefaultTermStore, failedListTaxonomySession);
}

function successDefaultTermStore() {
groups = termStore.get_groups();
context.load(groups);
context.executeQueryAsync(
function () {
var groupList = "List: \n";
var groupsEnum = groups.getEnumerator();
while (groupsEnum.moveNext()) {
var currentGroup = groupsEnum.get_current();
var groupName = currentGroup.get_name();
groupList += groupName + "\n";
}
alert(groupList);
}, function () {
//failed
});
}

If you review the code above, this code loads the SP.Taxonomy.js file, then loads the TaxonomySession from context, calls session.getDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore(). Loads that term store, then gets all groups belonging to that term store, then lastly prints them out to an alert window.

Every time I ran this code I was getting the error message.

The reason why I was getting this message was because the properties of the Managed Metadata Service Connection didn’t have “This service application is the default storage location for column specific term sets” ticked.

You need to go into Central administration > Application Management > Manage service applications. Find your Managed Metadata Service, then select the Managed Metadata Service Connection, and click Properties on the ribbon.

Then tick ensure the second option is ticked.

If you re-run the code you should find it now works.

Creating a Site Column with managed Metadata

Posted on April 1, 2013 by cann0nf0dder

In the last blog I explained to you how to use the Term Store Management Tool. Once you have created a Term Set and terms, you will want to use them within your SharePoint Sites. This blog will explain how to do this via point and click in the UI, and then afterwards I will show you how programmatically you can create a Managed Metadata Column in a SharePoint Feature.

Creating a Managed Metadata Column for a library (Point and Click).

Go to your site, and create a new document library.
Once created on the ribbon, select Library from the Library Tools and then click Library Settings.
Under the columns section click Create Column
Name your column, in my instance I’ve called my Location.
Select Managed Metadata as the column type.
- Now if under Term Set Settings you get the message “The required feature is not enabled for this column type”, then you are probably using a blank site and will need to enable a SP Feature in powershell. Type the following in powershell
```
Enable-SPFeature –id "73EF14B1-13A9-416B-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C" –Url <SiteURL>
```
- Go back to your Create Column page, select a different column type, then select Managed Metadata column again. Under Term Set Settings you will see your Managed Metadata Data Service instead of the above message.
Under Term Set Settings, expand the service and group to navigate down to your term set. Mine is called Countries.
Under Default Value you can enter a value that is always displayed when creating a new item. For my demo, I’m putting United Kingdom.
Back on your list, upload a document. As you can see, in Location by default United Kingdom is entered.
If you wish to change this, you can either
- Delete United Kingdom and type the name of a different term
- Click the label icon on the right which brings up the term dialog to allow you to select a different Term.
I’ve uploaded a few documents in preparation for my part 4 of my Managed Metadata Series. As you can see I’ve set all the locations.

Programmatically create a Managed Metadata Column.

Here we are going to walk through creating a Managed Metadata column via a feature, then we are going to build upon it to create a list Definition and list instance.

Open Visual Studio, and create a new Empty SharePoint Project. Name the project ManagedMetadata.
Use your SharePoint Site for debugging, I’m using a team site, and Deploy as a Farm Solution.
In Solution Explorer right click your project and select Add -> New Item.
On the Add New Item dialog, select Empty Element and name it Fields. This will create a feature for you too.

Open the Elements.xml file and add the following to create 2 fields. The first field of type TaxonomyFieldType is the actual field we are trying to create (TaxonomyFieldTypeMulti for multiple selection, don’t forget to add Multi = True to the element field too). The Show Field will always point to Term1033 for any Managed Metadata Column. You will need to also include the Customization section. This will be identical for every Managed Metadata Column you create, except the Guid which is the same Guid ID of the second field created here, the Note Hidden field. The Note field, is a hidden field that contains a reference to the actual term in the term set that was selected, this is required for each Managed Metadata Column and the name of it is always [ManagedMetadataColumName]TaxHTField0

<Field ID="{B654D984-187A-471B-8738-F08F3356CFDA}"
         Type="TaxonomyFieldType"
         DisplayName="Countries"
         ShowField="Term1033"
         EnforceUniqueValues="FALSE"
         Group="Demo"
         StaticName="Countries"
         Name="Countries">
    <Customization>
      <ArrayOfProperty>
        <Property>
          <Name>TextField</Name>;
          <Value xmlns:q6="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" p4:type="q6:string" xmlns:p4="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">{67308AC2-9556-456B-BF9E-43E8F23EBEE6}</Value>
        </Property>
      </ArrayOfProperty>
    </Customization>
  </Field>
  <Field Type="Note"
         DisplayName="Countries_0"
         StaticName="CountriesTaxHTField0"
         Name="CountriesTaxHTField0"
         ID="{67308AC2-9556-456B-BF9E-43E8F23EBEE6}"
         ShowInViewForms="FALSE"
         Required="FALSE"
         Hidden="TRUE"
         CanToggleHidden="TRUE"
         Group="Demo"
         RowOrdinal="0"
         />
</Elements>

Now we have created the field if this was deployed it wouldn’t work. This is because you have to hook up the column to the TermSet, and this isn’t something we can do declaratively. It has to be done via a Feature Receiver event. Right click your feature, and select Add Event Receiver.
Before we start, we need to add a dll reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy. Right click References > Add References… and find Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy. Add using Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxnonomy to the top of your Event Receiver class.
In the FeatureActivated event add the code

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
 SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;
 ConnectTaxonomyField(site, new Guid("{B654D984-187A-471B-8738-F08F3356CFDA}", "Continents", "Countries");
}

We are about to create the ConnectTaxonomyField method in a moment. It will pass in the Guid of the Managed Metadata Field ID, and the Group name, and Term Set Name of the Term Set we wish to add. From the below image you can see where I got the string names from.

public static void ConnectTaxonomyField(SPSite site, Guid fieldId, String termGroup, string termSetName)
{
 //Check if field exists in the site.
 if(site.RootWeb.Fields.Contains(fieldId))
 {
   //Create a Taxonomy Session
   TaxonomySession session = new TaxonomySession(site);
   if(session.DefaultkeywordsTermStore != null)
   {
     //get the default metadata service application
     var termStore = session.DefaultKeywordsTermStore;
     var group = termStore.Groups.GetByName(termGroup);
     var termSet = group.TermSets.GetByName(termSetName);
     TaxonomyField field = site.RootWeb.Fields[fieldId] as TaxonomyField;
     field.SspId = termSet.TermStore.Id;
     field.TermSetId = termSet.Id;
     field.TargetTemplate = string.Empty;
     field.AnchorId = Guid.Empty;
     field.Update();
    }
    else
    {
       throw new Exception(string.Format("DefaultKeyWordTermStore not found in this site {0}", site.Url));
    }
  }
  else
  {
    throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Field {0} not found in site {1}", fieldId, site.Url));
  }
 }

The termStore.Groups.GetByName() and group.TermSets.GetByName() you will find that they don’t exist in your code. That is because these are custom extensions I have created. Add a new class to your project called Extensions, and ensure it is a public static, also add using Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxnonomy to the top of your class. Add the following code.

public static Group GetByName(this GroupCollection groupCollection, string groupName)
{
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(groupName))
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Taxonomy group name cannot be empty", "name");
            }
            foreach (var group in groupCollection)
            {
                if (group.Name == groupName)
                {
                    return group;
                }
            }
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("Group Name", groupName, " Could not find the taxonomy group");
        }

        public static TermSet GetByName(this TermSetCollection termSets, string termSetName)
        {
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(termSetName))
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Term set name cannot be empty", "name");
            }
            foreach (var termSet in termSets)
            {
                if (termSet.Name == termSetName)
                {
                    return termSet;
                }
            }
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("TermSetName", termSetName, " Could not find the term set");
       }

Now we can deploy our solution. First go into the feature, and change the scope from Web to Site. Now click the play button in Visual Studio and deploy the solution.
Once your site has loaded up, click Site actions -> Site Settings. Under Galleries, click on Site Columns. As my field was put in the group Demo when I scroll down to that group, I see Countries.
Click on Countries. Now if my feature receiver has worked correctly, under Term Set Settings this has been configured correctly.

Create Content Type and List Definition with Managed Metadata

In this step, we are going to create a Content Type, add our new Managed metadata field and required fields to get it all working. Then we are going to create a list definition.

Right click on your project and select Add > New Item. Select Content Type and give it the name of Document Location. Click Add.
In the SharePoint Customization Wizard select Document as the base type. Click finish.
The Elements.xml file should already be displayed for you, for your new content type. We need to update a few items first
- Name – Document Location,
- Group – Demo Content Type
- Description – Demonstration of a content type with a managed metadata field.
Now we need to add our field refs. The Managed Metadata Field, the Note field that comes with our Managed Metadata field, SharePoint’s TaxCatchAll column and SharePoint’s TaxCatchAllLabel. The TaxCatchAll and TaxCatchAllLabel columns are lookup fields pointing to the special hidden list in the site collection (TaxonomyHiddenList). They point to the CatachAllData and CatachAllDataLabel fields in the hidden list and are used within each list that has a column of type Managed Metadata. Our final Content Type Elements file should look like below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<!-- Parent ContentType: Document (0x0101) -->;
  <ContentType ID="0x010100571ebc0f478a49d5a775039347ee1535"
               Name="Document Location"
               Group="Demo"
               Description="A content type containing Managed Metadata Column."
               Inherits="TRUE"
               Version="0">
    <FieldRefs>
      <FieldRef ID="{B654D984-187A-471B-8738-F08F3356CFDA}" Name="Countries"/>
      <FieldRef ID="{67308AC2-9556-456B-BF9E-43E8F23EBEE6}" Name="CountriesTaxHTField0"/>
      <FieldRef ID="{f3b0adf9-c1a2-4b02-920d-943fba4b3611}" Name="TaxCatchAll"/>
      <FieldRef ID="{8f6b6dd8-9357-4019-8172-966fcd502ed2}" Name="TaxCatchAllLabel"/>
    </FieldRefs>
  </ContentType>
</Elements>

Now we are going to create our List Definition. Right Click on your project and select Add > New Item. Select List Definition From Content Type and give it the name of DocLocationCT. Click Add.
In the SharePoint Customization Wizard put the Display Name as Reference Documents and select your Document Location as the content type to use for your list definition. Ensure the Add a list instance for this list definition is ticked. Click Finish.
Open the Schema.xml file from within your DocLocationCT. At the very top of the document you will see <List xmlns:ows=”Microsoft SharePoint”… add the following attribute to enable Content Types on the Document Library.
```
EnableContentTypes="TRUE"
```
Underneath <List><Metadata><ContentType><FieldRefs> you will see that all your fields have already been added to the Content Type FieldRefs section at the top of the file.
Under the <ContentTypes> section there is the <Fields> section. Near the bottom of the <Fields> section you will find the TaxonomyField Type and Note field for Countries and CountriesTaxHTField0. Here is your first Gotcha, you need to add the following to the end of the Countries field.
```
webId="~sitecollection" List="TaxonomyHiddenList"
```
To ensure our field shows up in the default view, scroll down Schema.xml file until you reach <View BaseViewID=”1″ Type=”HTML”… Then add the following as an addition FieldRef. The order you add it to in the list, will be the order it will appear on the document library view. I’ (Please note, if you add it to BaseViewID=”0″ it will not show up.
```
<FieldRef Name="Countries"></FieldRef>
```

List instance.

When we created the List Definition, we said to add a list instance for this list definition.

Within the List Definition in Solution Explorer, you can see a List Instance has been added with an elements.xml file. Open up this elements file. Change the file to the following. (We will add the featureId value shortly, also note that the TemplateType will match the List Template Type in the Elements.xml file from the List Defintion.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ListInstance Title="Document Location References"
                OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
                TemplateType="10000"
                Url="Lists/References"
                FeatureId="[The Feature ID of the List Definition Feature]"
                Description="A document library of reference, categorised by Country/Region.">
  </ListInstance>
</Elements>

The last thing that has to be done is add an event receiver for our list instance. This event receiver is fired on item adding or item updating. The events are SharePoint Taxonomy events, and they ensure the hidden columns are updated whenever the values within the Managed Metadata column changes. Right Click the project and select Add > New Item. Select Event Receiver and name it MangedMetadataER, click Add.
On the SharePoint Customization Wizard, the event receiver type is List Item Events (Default). The item that should be the event source is Reference Documents(ManagedMetadata\DocLocationCT) (Default). Then tick An item is being added and An item is being updated. Click Finished.
You will be taken to the .cs file. This file can be deleted. Then open the Elements.xml file of the ManagedMetadataER.
The current Receivers shown will need to be deleted and replaced. To be honest we could have just created an empty element, however I like the icons in Visual studio to be correct, so this is the reason I created an Event Receiver.

Replace the Receivers to so the file looks like the following.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Receivers ListTemplateId="10000">
    <Receiver>
      <Name>TaxonomyItemSynchronousAddedEventReceiver</Name>
      <Type>ItemAdding</Type>
      <Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>
      <Class>Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyItemEventReceiver</Class>
      <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>;
    </Receiver>
    <Receiver>
      <Name>TaxonomyItemUpdatingEventReceiver</Name>
      <Type>ItemUpdating</Type>
      <Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>
      <Class>Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.TaxonomyItemEventReceiver</Class>
      <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>
    </Receiver>
  </Receivers>
</Elements>

Time to put it all together. Create 2 features. One called ManagedMetadataListDefinition and one called ManagedMetadataListInstance. Both of these features are web scope instances. (Gotcha 2! I found that if List Definition and List Instance in the same feature didn’t allow the Managed Metadata field to work when I viewed the list it created on activation, although, any following lists created via the list definition did.)The original feature 1 can be renamed to ManagedMetadataFieldAndCT.
In the MangedMetadataFieldAndCT feature, (Site scope) ensure the following items are in the Feature.
- Fields
- Document Location (This is the Content Type)
In the ManagedMetadataListDefinition feature, (Web scope) ensure the following items are in the Feature.
- DocLoactionCT (This is the List Definition)
- ManagedMetadataER (This is the Event Receiver)
In the ManagedMetadataListInstance feature, (Web scope) ensure the following items are in the Feature.
- ListInstance1 (This is the List Instance)
Lastly, double click the ManagedMetadataListDefinition and view the properties (F4). Take a copy of the Feature Id. Now open the Elements.xml file from the ListInstance1 and add this Guid to the FeatureId property that we left blank earlier.
Now deploy your solution. When your site loads up, in the Quick Launch list you will see “Document Location References” this is your List Instance. You should find uploading an item, and being able to pick from the term store something for Countries.
If you click Site Actions -> More Options, the Create dialog box will appear. If you filter by Library, in the list you will see Reference Documents. This is your List Definition.
If you click Site Actions -> Site Settings. Under Galleries, click on Site Content Types. If we scroll down to the group Demo you will see our Content Type Document Location.

This concludes this blog Creating a Site Column with managed Metadata (gotchas with List Definitions) in the Managed Metadata Series. It highlighted some of the Gotchas when creating the Managed Metadata field declaratively. Our next part in the series will explain about Search Refiners, and how to create one based on a Managed Metadata column.

Explaining how to use the Term Store

Posted on March 31, 2013 by cann0nf0dder

In my previous blog I showed you how to create a Managed Metadata Service. As you saw it wasn’t that difficult. This blog in the series will explain how to use the Term Store Management Tool.

How to find the link to the Term Store

If you are in Central Administration, the link is easy to find, you simply navigate to Application Management, under Service Applications click Manage service applications. Down the list you should see Managed Metadata Service click this link. However if you are not a Farm Administrator you won’t be able to navigate to Central Administration site.

On the Site Collection root site, click Site Actions -> All Site Settings. Under Site Administration there should be a link to Term store management.

However there can be times when this link isn’t showing.

Normally because you have created a Blank site. So what feature activates this link? The feature you are looking for is hidden, and can only be activated via powershell, or via the stsadm command. (stsadm command is really for SharePoint 2007, so below I’ll show you the PowerShell command.


Enable-SPFeature –id &quot;73EF14B1-13A9-416B-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C&quot; –Url &lt;SiteURL&gt;

Explaining the Term Store Structure.

In the above picture it illustrates how the Term Store is structured.

Managed Metadata Service – This is the name of the Term Store. This is when you created your Managed Metadata Service in my previous blog. Each Term Store has 1 SQL database. The properties you can set on a Term Store are adding/removing Term Store Administrators (See Permissions for Term Store Management Tool), you can assign the default language, and specify which other languages to be used within the Term Store. Please note these languages will depend on the Language packs you have installed within the farm.

Group – Under the Term Store you can create multiple groups. Each group are a security boundary, so assigning users to one group doesn’t mean they will have access to another. The properties on the group, allows you to add or remove Group managers or Contributors. (See Permissions for Term Store Management Tool).

Term Set – A term set is a collection of terms. You can have many term sets per Group. When you create a managed metadata column you normally assign the column to a term set. (E.g, Country, Office, Department etc). The properties on the Term Set allows you to set the owner and email address for term suggestions and feedback, any stakeholders for the term set can be added here too. The Submission Policy is by default set to Closed. When closed only metadata managers can add terms to this term set. When it is open, users can add terms from a tagging application. (Similar to the keywords)

Term – Think of the term as the item within the term set. So for country a Term might be United Kingdom, France, Spain. Properties for Term allows you to create a default label for each language, you can also add other labels such as synonyms. This might be United Kingdom synonym would be GBR. If a user searched for GBR or United Kingdom both would resolve to the same Term.

Sub Term – A Term can have one or multiple terms beneath it, so for country a Sub Term for United Kingdom, might be England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland.

Permissions for Term Store Management Tool

Term Store Administrators

When you set up your Managed Metadata Service you would automatically be the Term Store Administrator. You can add additional people to be a Term Store Administrator. By doing so, you will give this users access to create new Term set groups and assign users to the group manager role. As an Administrator, access the Term Store Management Tool, on the landing page, the properties page has a section called Term Store Administrators. It is here where you can additional Administrators.

Group Managers

The group managers are assigned at the Group level and are contributors on this group but can also assign other users to the contributor role. This setting can be found on the Group Properties.

Contributors

The contributors are assigned at the Group level too, they will have full permission to edit term sets and terms within this group.

Adding to the Term Store.

There are two ways in which you can add to the Term Store.

Manually
Via a CSV import.

To do it manually is simply click on the right of the Group, Term Set or Term which brings up a context menu for that item type.

When you have numerous Terms to enter, you probably find it tedious. Therefore you can do it via a CSV. On the Term Store properties page there is a link to a CSV Sample import. By downloading this and viewing it you can see how to create your Term Set via a CSV

The above is a picture of the sample CSV. To import, once you have created your group by clicking the context menu, you can select Import Term Set. Point it to your CSV file and then after clicking OK, your term set is imported. The picture below shows you the sample term set that Microsoft provides you.

In Part 3 of the blog, I’m going to show you how to use the Term Store for a general site user. Then I’m going to show you how to create a Site Column with List definition using C# code.

Setting up Managed Metadata Service

Posted on March 31, 2013 by cann0nf0dder

In this 5 part blog I’m going to explain about Managed Metadata Service. The managed metadata service application has two purposes, 1. To make it possible to use managed metadata and 2. Share content types. I will not be going into detail about the Content Hub or shared content types across site collections in this series of blogs, but basically if you create a site collection and turn on the feature Content Type Syndication Hub before creating the Managed Metadata Service you will have a working Content Hub for the Farm. The Managed metadata service can be used to define metadata centrally for all web applications. You can even use the service across farms. Cross farms will also be outside of the scope of this blog.

If you have already created your managed metadata service using the SharePoint wizard then you can completely skip this step. However in a live environment you probably won’t want to use the wizard and create the Managed Metadata service manually so that it has the correct service account.

Setting up Managed Metadata Service.

Open central administration and click on Application Management. Under the Service Applications section, click on Manage Service Applications.
On the ribbon bar click New and select Managed Metadata Service.
Put the following information in:
- Name: Managed Metadata Service
- Database Server:
  (This should be your SharePoint SQL server. Normally entered by default)
- Database Name: SP_Dev_MMS
- Under Application Pool, Create a new application Pool Application Pool Name: MMS_AP
- Configurable:
  (In my case I have an account already set up called SP_Services, use whatever account you wish that is not your Farm Account or your personal account. Register a new managed account called SP_MMS if you like)
- Content Type Hub: (This is the URL to your Content Hub, please note you will not be able to change this again here in the UI. If you wish to add it later, or change it, you will need to use PowerShell.)
- Report syndication import errors: Ticked
- Add this service application to the farm’s default list: Ticked.
Click OK

If you have followed the instructions above correctly, you should now see Managed Metadata Service in the Service Application list.

By clicking on this you will now have access to the Term Store Management Tool.

In my next blog I will explain how to use the Term Store Management Tool in more detail. How to create Term Sets, and how to assign permissions.

SharePoint and other geeky stuff

Tag Archives: Term Store

getDefaultSiteCollectionTermStore() – JavaScript runtime error: Unable to get property ‘toString’ of undefined or null reference

Creating a Site Column with managed Metadata

Creating a Managed Metadata Column for a library (Point and Click).

Programmatically create a Managed Metadata Column.

Create Content Type and List Definition with Managed Metadata

List instance.

Explaining how to use the Term Store

How to find the link to the Term Store

Explaining the Term Store Structure.

Permissions for Term Store Management Tool

Term Store Administrators

Group Managers

Contributors

Adding to the Term Store.

Setting up Managed Metadata Service

Setting up Managed Metadata Service.

SharePoint and other geeky stuff

Share this:

Like this:

Creating a Managed Metadata Column for a library (Point and Click).

Programmatically create a Managed Metadata Column.

Create Content Type and List Definition with Managed Metadata

List instance.

Share this:

Like this:

How to find the link to the Term Store

Explaining the Term Store Structure.

Permissions for Term Store Management Tool

Term Store Administrators

Group Managers

Contributors

Adding to the Term Store.

Share this:

Like this:

Setting up Managed Metadata Service.

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Like this: