How can I reduce the number of annotations on a map?

Question

I\'m coding a map view with around 900 annotations. Having this many annotations on a map make the performance suffer, so I\'d like to reduce it to about 300 at a time. The

Answer 1

Late to the party, I know, but you may find this routine useful. It comes from this file, which is part of a FOSS project.

/**************************************************************//**
 \brief This function looks for meetings in close proximity to each
        other, and collects them into "red markers."
 \returns an NSArray of BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation objects.
 *****************************************************************/
- (NSArray *)mapMeetingAnnotations:(NSArray *)inResults ///< This is an NSArray of BMLT_Meeting objects. Each one represents a meeting.
{
#ifdef DEBUG
    NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations - Checking %d Meetings.", [inResults count]);
#endif
    NSMutableArray  *ret = nil;

    NSInteger   displayIndex = 1;

    if ( [inResults count] )
        {
        NSMutableArray  *points = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        for ( BMLT_Meeting *meeting in inResults )
            {
#ifdef DEBUG
            NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations - Checking Meeting \"%@\".", [meeting getBMLTName]);
#endif
            CLLocationCoordinate2D  meetingLocation = [meeting getMeetingLocationCoords].coordinate;
            CGPoint meetingPoint = [(MKMapView *)[self view] convertCoordinate:meetingLocation toPointToView:nil];
            CGRect  hitTestRect = CGRectMake(meetingPoint.x - BMLT_Meeting_Distance_Threshold_In_Pixels,
                                             meetingPoint.y - BMLT_Meeting_Distance_Threshold_In_Pixels,
                                             BMLT_Meeting_Distance_Threshold_In_Pixels * 2,
                                             BMLT_Meeting_Distance_Threshold_In_Pixels * 2);

            BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation *annotation = nil;
#ifdef DEBUG
            NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations - Meeting \"%@\" Has the Following Hit Test Rect: (%f, %f), (%f, %f).", [meeting getBMLTName], hitTestRect.origin.x, hitTestRect.origin.y, hitTestRect.size.width, hitTestRect.size.height);
#endif

            for ( BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation *annotationTemp in points )
                {
                CGPoint annotationPoint = [(MKMapView *)[self view] convertCoordinate:annotationTemp.coordinate toPointToView:nil];
#ifdef DEBUG
                NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations - Comparing the Following Annotation Point: (%f, %f).", annotationPoint.x, annotationPoint.y);
#endif

                if ( !([[annotationTemp getMyMeetings] containsObject:meeting]) && CGRectContainsPoint(hitTestRect, annotationPoint) )
                    {
#ifdef DEBUG
                    for ( BMLT_Meeting *t_meeting in [annotationTemp getMyMeetings] )
                        {
                        NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations - Meeting \"%@\" Is Close to \"%@\".", [meeting getBMLTName], [t_meeting getBMLTName]);
                        }
#endif
                    annotation = annotationTemp;
                    }
                }

            if ( !annotation )
                {
#ifdef DEBUG
                NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations -This meeting gets its own annotation.");
#endif
                NSArray *meetingsAr = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:meeting, nil];  
                annotation = [[BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation alloc] initWithCoordinate:[meeting getMeetingLocationCoords].coordinate andMeetings:meetingsAr andIndex:0];
                [annotation setDisplayIndex:displayIndex++];
                [points addObject:annotation];
                }
            else
                {
#ifdef DEBUG
                NSLog(@"BMLTMapResultsViewController mapMeetingAnnotations -This meeting gets lumped in with others.");
#endif
                [annotation addMeeting:meeting];
                }

            if ( annotation )
                {
                if ( !ret )
                    {
                    ret = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
                    }

                if ( ![ret containsObject:annotation] )
                    {
                    [ret addObject:annotation];
                    }
                }
            }
        }

    // This is the black marker.
    BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation *annotation = [[BMLT_Results_MapPointAnnotation alloc] initWithCoordinate:[[BMLTAppDelegate getBMLTAppDelegate] searchMapMarkerLoc] andMeetings:nil andIndex:0];

    if ( annotation )
        {
        [annotation setTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"BLACK-MARKER-TITLE", nil)];
        [ret addObject:annotation];
        }

    return ret;
}

You can see it in action in the released version of the app.

Meetings in close proximity are gathered into red annotations, which open a list.