Easy way to manage term sets

Question

I have just typed 1000 terms, and term sets into my dev environment in 2013. I now you can import csv files, but the question, is how can I export them from the dev environment, so that I can easily import them into other environments. I need that it uses the same guids.

thx

Answer 1

There doesn't exist a User-interface function to do this, how ever through the power of PowerShell this is possible.

Mercedes Bernard has made a brilliant blog which includes PowerShell script about how to export Term Sets.

Andreas Wijaya has taken Mercedes Bernard's PowerShell script and altered it a bit to match his needs for it, but both works very well.

Both export the Term Sets in to CSV files.

Code from Andreas' blog:

Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"

 function Get-TermSetsCSV() {
      param($SiteUrl, $CSVOutput)

      $empty = ""

      $taxonomySite = Get-SPSite -Identity $SiteUrl

     #Connect to Term Store in the Managed Metadata Service Application
     $taxonomySession = Get-SPTaxonomySession -site $taxonomySite
     $taxonomyTermStore =  $taxonomySession.TermStores | Select Name
     $termStore = $taxonomySession.TermStores[$taxonomyTermStore.Name]

     foreach ($group in $termStore.Groups)
     {
         foreach($termSet in $group.TermSets)
         {
             if ($termSet.Name -eq "Your Term Set Name")
             {
             $terms = @()

             #The path and file name, in this case I did C:\TermSet\TermSetName.csv
             $CSVFile = $CSVOutput + '\' + $termSet.Name + '.csv'

             #From TechNet: The first line of the file must contain 12 items separated by commas
             $firstLine = New-TermLine -TermSetName $termSet.Name -TermSetDescription $empty -LCID $empty -AvailableForTagging "TRUE" -TermDescription $empty -Level1 $empty -Level2 $empty -Level3 $empty -Level4 $empty -Level5 $empty -Level6 $empty -Level7 $empty
             $terms+=$firstLine

             #Now we start to add a line in the file for each term in the term set
             foreach ($term in $termSet.GetAllTerms())
             {
                 $tempTerm = $term
                 $counter = 0
                 $tempTerms = @("","","","","","","")

                 #this while loop makes sure you are using the root term then counts how many child terms there are
                 while (!$tempTerm.IsRoot)
                 {
                      $tempTerm = $tempTerm.Parent
                      $counter = $counter + 1
                 }

                 $start = $counter

                 #this makes sure that any columns that would need to be empty are empty
                 #i.e. if the current term is 3 levels deep, then the 4th, 5th, and 6th level will be empty

                 while ($counter -le 6)
                 {
                     $tempTerms[$counter] = $empty
                     $counter = $counter + 1
                 }

                 #start with the current term
                 $tempTerm = $term

                 #fill in the parent terms of the current term (there should never be children of the current term--the child term will have its own line in the CSV)
                 while ($start -ge 0)
                 {
                     $tempTerms[$start] = $tempTerm.Name
                     $tempTerm = $tempTerm.Parent
                     $start = $start - 1
                 }

                 #create a new line in the CSV file
                 $CSVLine = New-TermLine -TermSetName $empty -TermSetDescription $empty -LCID $empty -AvailableForTagging "TRUE" -TermDescription $empty -Level1 $tempTerms[0] -Level2 $tempTerms[1] -Level3 $tempTerms[2] -Level4 $tempTerms[3] -Level5 $tempTerms[4] -Level6 $tempTerms[5] -Level7 $tempTerms[6]

                 #add the new line
                 $terms+=$CSVLine
             }


             #export all of the terms to a CSV file
             $terms | Export-Csv $CSVFile -notype
             }
         }
     }
     $taxonomySite.dispose()
}

  #constructor
  function New-TermLine() {
     param($TermSetName, $TermSetDescription, $LCID, $AvailableForTagging, $TermDescription,

$Level1, $Level2, $Level3, $Level4, $Level5, $Level6, $Level7)

     $term = New-Object PSObject

     $term | Add-Member -Name "TermSetName" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $TermSetName
     $term | Add-Member -Name "TermSetDescription" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $TermSetDescription
     $term | Add-Member -Name "LCID" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $LCID
     $term | Add-Member -Name "AvailableForTagging" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $AvailableForTagging
     $term | Add-Member -Name "TermDescription" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $TermDescription
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level1" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level1
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level2" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level2
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level3" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level3
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level4" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level4
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level5" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level5
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level6" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level6
     $term | Add-Member -Name "Level7" -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Level7

      return $term
  }

  Get-TermSetsCSV -SiteUrl "Your Site" -CSVOutput "C:\"

Answer 2

This is the powershell code I used in my project and it exports the guids as well. I think is a simplier way

EXPORT

$mmsProxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | ?{ $_.DisplayName -eq "Managed Metadata Service" }

$mmsApp = Get-SPServiceApplication | ?{ $_.DisplayName -eq "Managed Metadata Service" }

$mmsAppID = $mmsApp.Id

Export-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData -Identity $mmsAppID -ServiceProxy $mmsProxy -Path C:\mms_origen.bak

IMPORT

$mmsProxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | ?{ $_.DisplayName -eq "Managed Metadata Service" }
$mmsApp = Get-SPServiceApplication | ?{ $_.DisplayName -eq "Managed Metadata Service" }
$mmsAppID = $mmsApp.Id
Import-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData -Identity $mmsAppID -ServiceProxy $mmsProxy -Path C:\mms_origen.bak –OverwriteExisting

Remember to change the literal "Managed Metadata Service" by the name of your Managed Metadata Service Application.