Pnp & remote provisioning : how to enable metadata navigation for a list or library via xml template?

Question

it's me again.

Going deeper and deeper into PnP and remote provisioning is like a roller coaster experience. We can do so much things ! And yet, there is like no real formal documentation.

What i want :

Well, for today, my question is quite simple : Via my xml template, how do I set up my Library settings ? And more particularly, how do i set up metadata navigation (aka key filters) for my Library ?

What i did :

For the moment, i have two things.

1. i've added the Web Feature in my Site Creation's xml template. Using this code below :

<

<pnp:Features> <pnp:WebFeatures><pnp:Feature ID="7201d6a4-a5d3-49a1-8c19-19c4bac6e668" Deactivate="false" Description="Metadata Navigation and Filtering (MetaDataNav) site feature" /></pnp:WebFeatures></pnp:Features>

2. I've created my Document Library, enabling ContentTypes etc... like this :

<

<pnp:ListInstance Title="Documents projet"
                          Description="Documents partagées entre les acteurs du projet (ASI et client)"
                          TemplateType="101"
                          Url="documentprojet"
                          EnableVersioning="true"
                          EnableMinorVersions="true"
                          MinorVersionLimit="20"
                          MaxVersionLimit="100"
                          DraftVersionVisibility="0"
                          ContentTypesEnabled="true"
                          RemoveExistingContentTypes="true"
                          EnableFolderCreation="true">
         <pnp:ContentTypeBindings>
              <pnp:ContentTypeBinding ContentTypeID="0x010100BBD2E6E36069334ABFD4717B8C2FA4D9" Default="true" />
              <pnp:ContentTypeBinding ContentTypeID="0x010100BBD2E6E36069334ABFD4717B8C2FA4D901"/>
              <pnp:ContentTypeBinding ContentTypeID="0x010100BBD2E6E36069334ABFD4717B8C2FA4D902"/>
            </pnp:ContentTypeBindings>
            <pnp:FieldDefaults>
              <pnp:FieldDefault FieldName="EtatValidation">Brouillon</pnp:FieldDefault>
              <pnp:FieldDefault FieldName="EtatValidationCR">A valider</pnp:FieldDefault>
              <pnp:FieldDefault FieldName="NumeroContrat">{parameter:NumContrat}</pnp:FieldDefault>
              <pnp:FieldDefault FieldName="Client">{parameter:Client}</pnp:FieldDefault>
              <pnp:FieldDefault FieldName="NomProjet">{parameter:Projet}</pnp:FieldDefault>
            </pnp:FieldDefaults>
          </pnp:ListInstance>

But i don't see anywhere any settings, any xml attriubte talking about metadata navigation. Is it already implemented or not ?

So, do you know how i should write my Library Creation xml template to set up my Metadata Navigation setting?

Thanks a lot for your help. have a nice day !

Answer 1

In CSOM and hence in PnP guidance, there is no equivalent to MetadataNavigationSettings that we find in the Server Object Model 2013.

But there is a hack available which via property bag using CSOM. By setting the property bag value, you would be able to achieve the Metadata navigation setting.

Try the below code:

private static void AddMetadataNavigationToDocLib()
{
    ClientContext ctx = new ClientContext("https://SiteUrl");
    var rootWeb = ctx.Site.RootWeb;
    List docLib = ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Documents");
    ctx.Load(rootWeb, p => p.AvailableFields);
    ctx.Load(docLib, p => p.RootFolder, p => p.RootFolder.Properties);

    ctx.ExecuteQuery();
    if (rootWeb.AvailableFields.Any(p => p.InternalName.Equals("MetadataFieldName")))
    {
        var field = rootWeb.Fields.GetByInternalNameOrTitle("MetadataFieldName");

        ctx.Load(field, p => p.Id, p => p.InternalName, p => p.TypeAsString);
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();

        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.Append("<MetadataNavigationSettings SchemaVersion='1' IsEnabled='True' AutoIndex='True'>");
        sb.Append("<NavigationHierarchies><FolderHierarchy HideFoldersNode='False' />");
        sb.AppendFormat("<MetadataField FieldID='{0}' FieldType='{1}' CachedName='{2}' CachedDisplayName='{3}' />", field.Id, field.TypeAsString, field.InternalName, field.InternalName);
        sb.Append("</NavigationHierarchies><KeyFilters /></MetadataNavigationSettings>");

        docLib.RootFolder.Properties["client_MOSS_MetadataNavigationSettings"] = sb.ToString();
        docLib.RootFolder.Update();
        docLib.Update();
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();
    }
}

Reference - Activating Document Lib Tree navigation using CSOM

MetadataNavigationSettings in Server object model 2013

Edit 2 - adding multiple fields as filters

private static void AddMetadataNavigationToDocLib()
{
    ClientContext ctx = new ClientContext("https://SiteUrl");
    var rootWeb = ctx.Site.RootWeb;
    List docLib = ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Documents");
    ctx.Load(rootWeb, p => p.AvailableFields);
    ctx.Load(docLib, p => p.RootFolder, p => p.RootFolder.Properties);

    ctx.ExecuteQuery();
    if (rootWeb.AvailableFields.Any(p => p.InternalName.Equals("MetadataFieldName")) && rootWeb.AvailableFields.Any(p => p.InternalName.Equals("MetadataFieldName2")) && rootWeb.AvailableFields.Any(p => p.InternalName.Equals("MetadataFieldName3")))
    {
        var field = rootWeb.Fields.GetByInternalNameOrTitle("MetadataFieldName");
        var field2 = rootWeb.Fields.GetByInternalNameOrTitle("MetadataFieldName2");
        var field3 = rootWeb.Fields.GetByInternalNameOrTitle("MetadataFieldName3");

        ctx.Load(field, p => p.Id, p => p.InternalName, p => p.TypeAsString);
        ctx.Load(field2, p => p.Id, p => p.InternalName, p => p.TypeAsString);
        ctx.Load(field3, p => p.Id, p => p.InternalName, p => p.TypeAsString);
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();

        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.Append("<MetadataNavigationSettings SchemaVersion='1' IsEnabled='True' AutoIndex='True'>");
        sb.Append("<NavigationHierarchies><FolderHierarchy HideFoldersNode='False' />");
        sb.AppendFormat("<MetadataField FieldID='{0}' FieldType='{1}' CachedName='{2}' CachedDisplayName='{3}' />", field.Id, field.TypeAsString, field.InternalName, field.InternalName);
        sb.AppendFormat("<MetadataField FieldID='{0}' FieldType='{1}' CachedName='{2}' CachedDisplayName='{3}' />", field2.Id, field2.TypeAsString, field2.InternalName, field2.InternalName);
        sb.AppendFormat("<MetadataField FieldID='{0}' FieldType='{1}' CachedName='{2}' CachedDisplayName='{3}' />", field3.Id, field3.TypeAsString, field3.InternalName, field3.InternalName);
        sb.Append("</NavigationHierarchies><KeyFilters /></MetadataNavigationSettings>");

        docLib.RootFolder.Properties["client_MOSS_MetadataNavigationSettings"] = sb.ToString();
        docLib.RootFolder.Update();
        docLib.Update();
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();
    }
}