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One of the challenges i always face when adding a site column of type Choice, is how i can allow non-site admin users to be able to manage the Choice site column's Choices?

For example let say i create a new site column of type Choice named "Category" with choices such as "HR","IT","Finance". and later on we wanted to add new Category, currently only me as a site admin i can edit the site column and add the new choice. but i want to allow end users to be able to add/edit/remove choices without giving them any permission on the site level... one way i tried before is that I replaced the Choices site columns with lookup columns, but the problem i faced is that the lookup columns can not be used inside the lists' Metadata Navigation Settings , as the Metadata Navigation Settings for a list can only use columns of type Choice or managed metadata as mentioned here:-

enter image description here

so i need to keep using Choice site columns but at the same time to allow end users to manage their choices. so i find this appraoch but i did not test it :-

  1. for each site column of type Choice, to create a custom list for it.
  2. Users will be adding items inside the list, and these items will represent the choices for the related site column.
  3. then using a timer job or a scheduled console application, i can write some code which will retrieve all the list items and add them as a choices inside the related site column .

so can anyone adivce on these 2 points:-

  1. is my above proposed appraoch a valid way to follow?
  2. what are the options i can follow to allow non-site admin users to manage the site columns of type Choice ??

Thanks in advance for any help. Regards

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In my opinion, you should use Managed Metadata fields instead of Choice fields. Then you could set Submission Policy to Open for target term set which would allow end-users to modify possible choices.

If you don't want to use Managed Metadata fields, I think that your approach is good, but instead of using timer job/scheduled console application, you can use event receiver. Then all changes would be reflected immediately. Another option would be creating some custom application page/web part to manage choice fields, but this would involve more work.

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  • but the problem is that our customer is not comfortable with the user experience of using managed metadata fields , and they prefer the more common approach of using drop-down lists,, i know managed metadata will provide a better way to allow end users to add terms,, but they do not want us to use managed metadata fields.. now if there were Managed Metadata with drop-down look and feel it will be what i am looking for...
    – John John
    Feb 22, 2017 at 9:53
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Agreed with Managed Metadata Choice Field suggested by @Paweł Hawrylak .

Option 2: To use a option in the choice field "Fill-in" choice and set it to Yes. The users will be able to submit their own values plus the option provided already to them .enter image description here

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  • but the problem is that our customer is not comfortable with the user experience of using managed metadata fields , and they prefer the more common approach of using drop-down lists,, i know managed metadata will provide a better way to allow end users to add terms,, but they do not want us to use managed metadata fields.. now if there were Managed Metadata with drop-down look and feel it will be what i am looking for...
    – John John
    Feb 22, 2017 at 9:52

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