taxonomy

Taxonomy (Managed Metadata)

SharePoint's managed metadata system for consistent tagging across sites using hierarchical term stores, term groups, term sets, and terms.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Description	Reference
Read access to the term store	Required to browse terms. Term Store Administrator role to create groups and term sets.	SharePoint admin roles

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How taxonomy is structured

graph TD
    Store["Term Store\n(tenant-level)"]
    Group["Term Group\n(e.g. Departments)"]
    TermSet["Term Set\n(e.g. Locations)"]
    Term["Term\n(e.g. Seattle)"]
    SubTerm["Sub Term\n(e.g. Downtown)"]

    Store --> Group
    Group --> TermSet
    TermSet --> Term
    Term --> SubTerm

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The Term Store is the root, accessed via TaxonomyService. It contains groups, which contain term sets, which contain terms (which can nest).

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Examples

Explore the term store

Step	Operation	File	Required role	API reference
1	Get term store info	get_term_store_info.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
2	Get a term group by name	get_group_by_name.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
3	Get a term set	get_term_set.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
4	Get a term by ID	get_term_by_id.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
5	Search terms	search_term.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
6	Export term store to file	export_term_store.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API

Taxonomy fields

Step	Operation	File	Required role	API reference
7	Create taxonomy field on a list	create_field.py	Member on list	Taxonomy REST API
8	Get taxonomy field value	get_field_value.py	Read access	Taxonomy REST API
9	Set taxonomy field value	set_field_value.py	Contribute on item	Taxonomy REST API

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Quick start

from office365.sharepoint.client_context import ClientContext
from office365.sharepoint.taxonomy.service import TaxonomyService

ctx = ClientContext("https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/team").with_client_secret(
    "contoso.onmicrosoft.com", "client_id", "client_secret"
)

# Access the term store
tax_service = TaxonomyService(ctx)
store = tax_service.term_stores.get().execute_query()
print(f"Term Store: {store.name}  (default language: {store.default_language})")

# List term groups
for group in store.groups:
    print(f"  Group: {group.name}")

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API reference

• SharePoint taxonomy REST API