title: SharePoint 2010: Advanced filtering on Managed Metadata field
body: <p>I'm implementing a document management site on SharePoint 2010. Each document that is stored on the site, is tagged with one or more geographical locations indicating what the content of the document is about. I have implemented this using a Managed Metadata field that is bound to a term set in the term store containing all possible locations. The locations are organized hierarchically, so let’s say first by country, then by region, city etc.</p>
  
  <p>I want to be able to quickly locate documents in a document library for a given location. SharePoint 2010 offers 3 out-of-the-box ways to accomplish this: (1) filtering on the column header, (2) using metadata navigation, and (3) using key filters.</p>
  
  <p>So far, so good. Now this is where things are getting tricky. Each location in the term store is identified by a number of different labels. So each location has a default label and an average of 3 or 4 additional labels (synonyms). For example: a location could be referred to as “Amsterdam”, “S-123” and “W-456”.
  I want to be able to:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Filter the document library by using any of the labels including the
  synonyms </li>
  <li>Include all locations that are below the location that    he/she
  specifies, in short: to recursively set the filter</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Going back to the 3 out-of-the-box options:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Filtering on the column header; does NOT support use of synonyms and
  does NOT support recursive filtering </li>
  <li>Using metadata navigation; does NOT support use of synonyms but does
  support recursive filtering</li>
  <li>Using key filters; does support use of synonyms but does NOT support
  recursive filtering</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Can you think of a creative solution that meets my requirements using the out-of-the-box controls? And if not, what options do I have for full customization (custom filter web part, extending out-of-the-box web parts etc.)?</p>
  
  <p>Hope to hear from you!</p>
  
  <p>Regards,
  Erik</p>