Can someone clarify the "What items in the group can its members update?" when creating a Group?

[Anonymous User]

This is creating confusion in our organization when creating groups for field season. I'm not understanding the reasoning behind this setting.

When Esri says updates to an item can include "description, title, tags, metadata, and content" what exactly does that mean? If I share a map with the group, can someone else edit the map? or just the map title?

What is "content"? Is that layers, layers in a map?

These are generally vague terms and it needs to be explained better. We seem to always be choosing the wrong one, and then end up having to recreate groups, unshare, reshare, etc. It's a time suck. Please clarify, thank you.

[KellyGerrow · Accepted solution]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the feedback. Here is a blog that may explain a little more about the issue that you are describing that causes you to re-create the group by Katie Cullen‌ https://community.esri.com/community/gis/web-gis/arcgisonline/blog/2018/05/31/the-case-of-the-missin...‌

Update capability groups enable additional editing capabilities for items in ArcGIS Online that are usually reserved for only the item owner. This allows a group of members to update and save changes to a map, the item information (title, description, tags). It also allows members in the group to open hosted feature layers with full editing control. This allows members in the organization to edit a layer that doesn't have editing enabled. These capabilities are really helpful when there are multiple users collaborating on a project where more than the owner needs the ability to edit an item (map, layer, app) that they do not own.

Most groups don't require this setting as the goal of the group is to share content that is ready for consumption. A member can share an editable view (or layer) with a group without update capabilities to have the correct members edit the content. Many times, members in an organization don't need to update the content in a map, but need to view, pan and inspect a map. This use doesn't require the ability to update items.

Let me know if this is helpful or if you have further questions,

Thanks,

Kelly 

[Anonymous User]

Thanks Kelly, that helps explain it a little, although the whole "content" thing is still confusing. Especially the editing with full control part - that could cause serious issues if someone doesn't understand this "content" part better. I'd like to see that "content" better explained when creating a group. I'd be fine with people editing and saving my map, but certainly wouldn't want certain people being able to edit my hosted layer when I didn't intend for that.

[NW-AllyBuccanero-GISS]

Thanks for posting this question, Nathan, and for the answer, Kelly. I've recently been tripped up by this setting, and have read the blog post mentioned above, as well as this post: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/sharing-collaboration/enable-colleagues-to-u....

I think it would be helpful to clarify the language between making changes to content (title, descriptions, tags, settings, etc) and editing capabilities. I'm inclined to choose "All items" for groups that are created for field data collection, thinking that update = editing. Specifically, I think the word "items" and "update" could be more specific or descriptive, or make it clearer that this option doesn't impact data editing. 

[StaceyCurry1]

This is also a cause for confusion for me. I want to click on update all because I'd like the users to update the map, but after choosing this, it doesn't appear in my groups to share and it's frustrating.

[Anonymous User]

Yes, insanely confusing! I am getting in deep just trying to figure out why I can't add certain members to my group. It's because of this setting. I agree with Allyson and MIMapper. Can someone create an Idea and let's get it voted up. If it's already an Idea, can you please share the link? Thanks!