How to customize categories in GeoNode

There are two possible approaches to implement and customize categories in GeoNode.

Using the existing TopicCategory model

GeoNode comes with a predefined set of categories, which it is based on the base.TopicCategory model. By default there are 19 Metadata Topic Categories, which are based on metadata standards.

If for a given GeoNode instance it is not required to be consistent with standards, it is possible to alter the existing categories, or add new ones using the GeoNode Django administrative site. For each category it is possible to change the label, the description and the icon. This will be reflected in the GeoNode instance appearance, for example here is how it looks the metadata wizard after adding a "drone data" category

and here is how it looks the "search by category" widget in the layers list GeoNode page

Using GeoNode keywords

A different approach is by using GeoNode keywords. The users can create keywords as they like, and they can associate a number of keywords to a given layer using the metadata editors.

The GeoNode administrator can create a hierarchy of keywords using the GeoNode administrative interface. It is possible to add new keywords, and set the hierarchy to a number of levels.

This is how the "search by keyword" widget looks in the layers list GeoNode page

If it could be useful that keywords can be created only by administrators, we could extend GeoNode with a new boolean settings which can be used to set such a behavior