7 Steps to Create Managed Property in SharePoint Online

13 September 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business, efficient content management is not merely an option but a crucial element for success. SharePoint Online, a pivotal component of the Microsoft 365 suite, stands as a robust solution, offering an impressive array of tools to help organizations streamline their content organization and retrieval processes. Among these tools, Managed Properties take center stage, facilitating the precise categorization and retrieval of information. In this comprehensive guide, we will embark on a journey through seven vital steps, meticulously crafted to empower you with the knowledge and skills to create Managed Property seamlessly within SharePoint Online.

What Are Managed Properties?

Managed properties are a fundamental concept in SharePoint Online that help organize and retrieve information effectively. They are essentially metadata fields associated with content stored in SharePoint. While SharePoint automatically generates some managed properties, you can also create custom ones tailored to your organization’s needs.

Why Are Managed Properties Important?

Before we delve into the technical aspects of managed properties, let’s understand why they are so important:

1. 1. Improved Search: Managed properties play a vital role in enhancing the search experience for users. They allow for more precise and relevant search results, ensuring that users can quickly find the content they need.
   2. Filtering and Sorting: Managed properties enable you to filter and sort content intelligently. This is particularly useful when you have a vast repository of documents, and you need to narrow down search results based on specific criteria.
   3. Personalization: Managed properties can be used to personalize content for different users or groups, ensuring that individuals see the information most relevant to them.

Now that we’ve established the significance of managed properties, let’s explore how to use them effectively in SharePoint Online.

SharePoint Managed Properties

SharePoint Online provides several built-in managed properties, each serving a specific purpose. Here are some of the most commonly used ones:

• • Title: The Title managed property stores the title of a document or item. It is one of the default managed properties in SharePoint Online.
  • Author: The Author managed property stores the name of the person who created the document or item.
  • Modified Date: This managed property, Modified Date, records the date and time when the document or item was last modified.
  • File Type: File Type is a useful managed property that identifies the type of document, such as Word, Excel, PDF, etc.

How to Create Managed Property in SharePoint Online

While the built-in managed properties are valuable, SharePoint Online also allows you to create custom managed properties to meet your specific business needs. Let’s look at how you can create a custom managed property:

Step 1: To create custom managed property, you need administrative access to your SharePoint Online environment.
1. Log in to your Microsoft 365 admin account.
2. Navigate to the SharePoint.

Step 2: Navigate to Search Schema
1. In the SharePoint Admin Center, select “More features” in the left-hand menu.
2. Scroll down and click on “Open” under “Search” to access the Search & Offline Availability settings.

Step 3: Click on Manage Search Schema and after you will see the main area where you can access Managed Properties.

Step 4: To create a custom managed property, click on “New Managed Property.” You will be prompted to provide a name and other details for your new managed property.

Step 5: Locate the “Refinable” checkbox and select it. This allows you to use the managed property in search refiners, which are helpful for filtering search results further.

SharePoint offers a convenient feature with a set of predefined Refinable Managed Properties, saving you the effort of creating them from scratch. In this process, we’ll map one of these built-in Refinable Managed Properties to our crawled properties. Here’s a list of the available types:

• RefinableString
• RefinableDate
• ​RefinableInt
• ​RefinableDecimal
• RefinableDouble

Step 6: Configure the settings for your managed property, including its type, whether it’s queryable, retrievable, and sortable.
1. Provide a name for your Managed Property, such as “MyCustomManagedProperty.”
2. Choose the data type that best suits your needs, such as Text, Date and Time, Yes/No, etc.
3. Select whether you want to allow multiple values.
4. Choose whether you want to include the property in the full-text index.

Step 7: Mappings determine which crawled properties are associated with your managed property. You can map it to existing crawled properties or create new ones.

1. Scroll down to the “Mappings to crawled properties” section.

2. Click “Add a mapping” and select the crawled property that corresponds to the content you want to associate with your Managed Property.

Finally, save your newly created refinable managed property. It may take some time for SharePoint to propagate these changes throughout your environment. You can verify that your managed property is working as expected by conducting searches and filters using the newly created property.

Using Managed Property in Search

Now that you have a better understanding of managed properties and how to create custom ones, let’s explore how they are used in search queries. SharePoint Online uses the Keyword Query Language (KQL) to perform advanced searches using managed properties. Here are some examples:

1. 1. 1. Basic Search: To find documents with “project” in the title, you can use the query: Title:project
      2. Complex Queries: Combine multiple managed properties to narrow down results. For instance, you can search for documents created by a specific author: Author:”John Doe”
      3. Sorting Results: Use managed properties for sorting results. For example, sort documents by their modified date: sort=ModifiedDate:descending
      4. Filtering Results: Apply filters using managed properties to refine search results. For instance, filter documents by file type: FileType:PDF

 SharePoint Managed Property Best Practices

To make the most of managed properties in SharePoint Online, consider these best practices:

1. 1. Plan Ahead for Efficient Information Retrieval

Before implementing SharePoint, take the time to define your managed properties and schema. A well-thought-out schema ensures that you can quickly and accurately retrieve the information you need. Consider factors such as content types, document libraries, and metadata to structure your schema effectively.

1. 2. Harness the Power of Managed Metadata

One of the cornerstones of effective content management is consistent tagging and classification of your content. Managed metadata and term sets offer a structured approach to achieve this. By using managed metadata, you can ensure that content is tagged uniformly, making it easier to organize, search, and retrieve.

1. 3. Stay Agile: Regularly Review and Update

Business requirements evolve over time, and so should your managed properties. Periodically review your managed properties to ensure they remain aligned with your changing needs. As your organization grows and your content landscape expands, updating your managed properties will help you maintain efficiency and relevancy.

1. 4. Empower Your Team with Training

Effectively using managed property in search queries requires knowledge and training. Educate your team on the best practices for utilizing managed properties. This ensures that they can harness the full potential of SharePoint’s search capabilities, leading to more productive workflows and improved content discovery.

1. 5. Gain Insights from Search Analytics

To fine-tune your managed properties, turn to search analytics. Analyzing user behavior through search analytics provides valuable insights into how your content is being accessed and what users are looking for. With this information, you can refine your managed properties to enhance the search experience for your audience.

Conclusion

Managed properties are the backbone of efficient information retrieval in SharePoint Online. By understanding their role, creating custom property, and using them effectively in search queries, you can significantly improve the way your organization manages and accesses its valuable content.

In today’s data-driven world, the ability to find and use information quickly can be a game-changer. SharePoint Online, with its robust managed properties system, empowers organizations to do just that.

As you continue your journey with SharePoint Online, remember that managed properties are a powerful tool at your disposal. With the right strategy and implementation, they can revolutionize how your organization harnesses the full potential of its data.

So, dive into the world of managed properties, explore their capabilities, and unlock the true potential of SharePoint Online for your business.

At Star Knowledge, we understand the complexities of SharePoint Online and offer specialized SharePoint consulting services tailored to your organization’s unique needs. Contact us today to explore how we can help you make the most of your SharePoint environment.