Metadata Inheritance Rules

Gimmal's Metadata Inheritance Rules (MIR) application enables you to create rules that set the content type for a new document, populate metadata in recently added or modified documents, or set a sequential numeric value on a site column when content is either added or modified (AutoNumbering). The Metadata Inheritance Rules Help consists of a Feature-Activated (FA) and a Provider-Hosted (PH) version. Click the folder for the desired environment to see the related configuration information.

MIR offers the following features:

Automates metadata indexing at the company and business function level.
Is configurable to allow site-specific overrides for Enterprise Rules.
Maximizes data consistency and data structure re-use.
Provides system configuration flexibility to meet unique business requirements.
Reduces the number of unique configurations, custom processes, and applications.

AutoNumbering RulesThe AutoNumbering Rules (ANR) feature is a component of Metadata Inheritance Rules, and is included as part of the MIR installation. ANR enables you to create AutoNumbering definitions that can be applied to a given content type and/or field, and which take effect when an item matching this rule is created in SharePoint. This item can be a physical and/or electronic record, or a document. An AutoNumbering rule is a MIR rule that has an AutoNumbering definition applied to it.

ANR can be used to create a unique identifier that is used for tracking purposes. For example, these identifiers are often used in the generation of barcode labels that can be machine-read. These numbers are affixed to the real-world assets but can also be used for electronic assets as well. The ANR unique descriptor differs from the Document ID service in SharePoint in that it allows for selectivity based on content type and allows for options to control how the identifier is created allowing for static masks to be applied (Prefix/Suffix) and control of the numeric aspect of the descriptor (Start Value/Integer Length, etc.).

Examples of autonumber values include:

REC-AN-0000001-ABC
LAX0000001CA
0000001-PHYREC

The numeric portion of the identifier created for a column is unique farm-wide or tenant-wide (for SharePoint on-premises or SharePoint online, respectively) or within a Governance Hub Global Configuration Group. An AutoNumbering rule is responsible for defining the following:

Name and Description of the rule
Selected content type or types
Ability to apply rule to all child content types
Name of column(s) to add to support the autonumber value
Prefix/Suffix
Start value
Integer length

AutoNumbering rules can only be created globally using the Governance Hub and Global Configuration Groups. You cannot create local AutoNumbering rules. For ANR to function, the app pool account that hosts the remote web services for MIR must have permission to create files and folders.