Multilingual managed metadata a dream come true? Yes and no, for the end user it is a perfect way to add extra metadata to an item. The value of the managed metadata automatically changes in the language that the user is in.

For example.

Dutch:

French:

 

For the developers it’s a nightmare, especially when search is involved.

 

Search

 

Q: I have an item with a managed metadata “Kalkoen”. When I search for “Kalkoen” will this item be in my search results?

 

A: The answer is very simple, it depends on what the default language is of your web.

When a user connects to the site, the site will be in de default language of the SPWeb. If the site is Multilanguage the user can change the language through the user menu.

 

 

When a user connects or sets a language SharePoint will add or edit the LCID cookie.

More about the MUI cookie => http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff800886.aspx

 

Now back to my question. If the default language of the site is Dutch you will find the item if you search for “Kalkoen”. But if you search “La Turquie” you won’t get the item in your search results.

 

The reason why you can’t find the item is pretty simple, the managed metadata is not saved in the current language you are working in but it will be saved in the webs default language.

 

E.g. if the default language of the site is French and  you create an item in the Dutch context and you choose “Kalkoen” as managed metadata, it will be saved as “La Turquie”

 

So when the crawler starts crawling for content, the managed metadata will be indexed according the default language of the site.