We started using Google Maps on our web application rather extensively. It worked fine at the beginning, but as we add more markers we find that the performance are not quite there. Although I'm quite sure we don't use it in the most efficient way.
I am looking for information about Google Maps best practices and tips'n tricks. Any suggestions?
You might find some good ideas in this article, which compares several methods of handling large amounts of markers.
Marker Manager has some limitations, depending on what you're trying to accomplish; for instance, it doesn't allow every marker to be available from every zoom level. I created a clustering function based on the principles discussed in this tutorial. It uses the Static Maps API in PHP, but the principles behind the clustering can be used however you want.
Update: This clustering utility was just released: MarkerClusterer
Use Marker Manager.
Limit markers to what's visible (ie, understand the window boundaries, and only show markers that fall inside the window)
Learn to listen for various map activities and react - such as viewpoint moves, zooming, etc - to update the markers
Don't show markers that overlap significantly - show only one marker (perhaps a different shade or color to denote there are several points at this marker) and let the user zoom in if they want to see the individual markers. Use the tooltip to show a zoomed in window if you want to get fancy.
Related
My map pushpins are relatively close to each other and even on a big zoom I still see them clustered.
I solved this issue by spreading the clustered pushpins by some random distance 5-10 meters.
I need more accurate solution so my idea is to disable the clustering below the certain zoom level, but I didn't find any way how to do it.
There is no option to disable clustering in the clustering layer in Bing Maps, but what you can do is monitor the zoom level of the map, and when it gets to a certain point, hide the cluster layer and load a new layer that isn't clustered. Unfortunately this means having two copies of your data in memory.
If you haven't fully committed to using the Bing Maps platform, you may also want to take a look at Azure Maps. The Azure Maps web SDK does things a bit differently where you would keep your data in a single data source and attach rendering layers to it. Clustering is turned on in the data source and has a max zoom level option for clustering.
Here is some examples: https://azuremapscodesamples.azurewebsites.net/index.html?search=cluster
Here is documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/clustering-point-data-web-sdk
There is an option clusteringEnabled now on ClusterLayerOptions which will disable clustering without losing the whole layer.
eg:
Microsoft.Maps.Events.addHandler(this.map, 'viewchangeend', () => {
// de-cluster at highest zoom level
this.clusterLayer?.setOptions({
clusteringEnabled:
this.map.getZoom() < this.map.getZoomRange().max
});
});
So, basic gist is, I have my own tiles of not the real world I'd like to display with the Google Maps viewer. I've found examples of how to split an existing single image into tiles for use with it, but nothing that deals with setting up your own tiler.
I have map data such as this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44766482/superimage/index.html
Which right now is just a bunch of 1600x1600 images in an html table. This naive method works, but I'd like to switch to the more robust google api for better zooming and smarter streaming of the image data.
I've been unable to find a good example of how to generate your own tiles for the zoom levels and bring it together with some html/js.
If you want some more information for the goal process;
I have a python script that can output any size tiles of the map, at any zoom level. I'd like to bundle those together into a google maps api website. But in my own efforts I have not found a good example or documentation of how to do that. For one, I can only find examples of how the zoom levels work for the real world map, but not for a custom one.
Edit:
Got most things working as I want them, but I'm still confused regarding the "center" that can be set, as it's in lat and lng, which don't apply. I'd also like to set boundaries as currently it tries to load .png files outside of the maps range.
My current progress:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44766482/googlemapspreview/index.html
I think what you are looking for is the google maps imageMapTypes:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/maptypes#ImageMapTypes
Basically, each zoom level is the 4 lower zoom tiles combined. A Projection function can be skipped to get orthogonal mapping.
So I have a probably not so unique scenario. The simplest way to explain it is a google map with all 50 US states, each state will have two markers. The markers are both driven by the same lat/long value. The problem Im having is that the markers are rendering ontop of one another. I somehow need to have them render next to one another or offset so that I can see both. The problem is how do I get it to not overlap into another state.
I saw some really neat "spider" functionality where it renders one marker and then if you click on it the others fan out, but the website was in another language.
I am going to try and use the following library.
https://github.com/jawj/OverlappingMarkerSpiderfier
The problem with the above implementation is that I am using a combination of KML and google maps client-side. I dont see a way to implement that for the kml markers
The Overlapping Marker Spiderfier project on GitHub will probably accomplish what you need.
Otherwise you can play around with the Marker's icon property. The icon can accept a Symbol which has and anchor that can be shifted from the default location (0,0).
Symbol documentation: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/reference#Symbol
I'm displaying many (hundreds) of markers at a time in a given viewport in Google Maps. Often, this leads to markers being drawn over each other.
Since the exact positions aren't as important at zoom levels where so many markers are drawn, is there a library or piece of code that allows markers to dynamically update their position based on whether they are overlapping with other markers or not? As the user zooms in (and markers becomes more sparse), the markers will then move closer to their real positions.
And yes, I know about groupings, marker clusterings, etc. Those solutions aren't appropriate in my situation, since it is important that all markers be displayed at all times. And in actuality, I am already using those techniques as well, where appropriate. I'm using the Javascript V3 API.
You probably need to implement your own clustering algorithm - I think Google Maps let's you implement your own strategy (I know Bing Maps does, and typical they copy each other within 6 months or so of a new feature being implemented).
Note that for lots of dense pushpins, your constrains of separation but displaying all pins, are in conflict.
as for a strategy, my first thought is an annealing type of algorithm, although it probably isn't very fast. Basically each pushpin would exert a force on surrounding pushpins within a certain distance. iterate until sufficiently stable.
Does the CloudMade API have the ability to control the z-order or z-index of the marker overlays (e.g.icons)?
I have used this before in Google Maps to make certain icons with more importance draw over the top of other icons with lesser importance (especially in some zoom levels where they may bunch together).
The Google Maps GMarker has the zIndexProcess option to handle this. Does anyone know if CloudMade has this facility? I have scoured the API docs and found nothing. Or does anyone here perhaps have an ad-hoc method that ensures one marker (or group of makers) will be drawn on a layer above the other?
Currently this feature is not available at CloudMade, but I'll add it to our Feature Requests list..