topic Re: Group Category Template in ArcGIS Online Questions

Group Category Template

JessiB — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 20:00:22 GMT

Hi!

Does anyone know if there is a way to create a template for group categories? I want to implement the same group categories in every group (I have upwards of 100 groups). I want to make a template that I can select that automatically enters in the categories, instead of having to manually type in the categories on all the groups.

Re: Group Category Template

AndreasHall — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:36:58 GMT

I do not think there are any template functionality for that. Would setting up organization wide categories work instead? These would be available for all content in the portal.
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Re: Group Category Template

JessiB — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 13:45:49 GMT

Hey thanks for responding!

Unfortunately no, each group is a project, with members limited to those working on that project, so we want each group to have its own set of categories when you open it up. This makes navigation through the project content a little easier, especially for people who aren't as versed in the AGOL platform. We also want to keep it consistent so that no matter what group someone is added to, they how to navigate it. If the GIS overlords are listening, more capabilities with categories would be helpful. I work in the environmental field and the amount of data stored on AGOL with no real way to organize it efficiently for project level work has been a challenge.

Re: Group Category Template

Katie_Clark — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:47:53 GMT

I think you could accomplish something like this using the ArcGIS REST API within an ArcGIS Notebook.

I tried this in a Notebook and it worked for me - does this accomplish what you need? You could just run this notebook any time you create a new group, updating the groupID variable as needed.

from arcgis.gis import GIS import json gis = GIS("home") groupID = "your-group-id-string-here" # Standard category template to assign to new groups category_schema = { "categorySchema": [ { "title": "Main Categories", "categories": [ {"title": "New Category 1"}, {"title": "New Category 2"}, {"title": "New Category 3"} ] } ] } # Convert schema to JSON string category_schema_str = json.dumps(category_schema) # Construct full REST URL url = f"{gis._portal.resturl}community/groups/{groupID}/assignCategorySchema" # POST to REST res = gis._con.post( url, { "categorySchema": category_schema_str, "f": "json" } ) print(res)

Re: Group Category Template

JessiB — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:07:25 GMT

Oh this could work! I'll try it out, thanks!!