Google maps Marker Label with multiple characters

First of all, Thanks to code author!

I found the below link while googling and it is very simple and works best. Would never fail unless SVG is deprecated.

https://codepen.io/moistpaint/pen/ywFDe/

There is some js loading error in the code here but its perfectly working on the codepen.io link provided.

var mapOptions = {
    zoom: 16,
    center: new google.maps.LatLng(-37.808846, 144.963435)
  };
  map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map-canvas'),
      mapOptions);


var pinz = [
    {
        'location':{
            'lat' : -37.807817,
            'lon' : 144.958377
        },
        'lable' : 2
    },
    {
        'location':{
            'lat' : -37.807885,
            'lon' : 144.965415
        },
        'lable' : 42
    },
    {
        'location':{
            'lat' : -37.811377,
            'lon' : 144.956596
        },
        'lable' : 87
    },
    {
        'location':{
            'lat' : -37.811293,
            'lon' : 144.962883
        },
        'lable' : 145
    },
    {
        'location':{
            'lat' : -37.808089,
            'lon' : 144.962089
        },
        'lable' : 999
    },
];

 

for(var i = 0; i <= pinz.length; i++){
   var image = 'data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2238%22%20height%3D%2238%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2038%2038%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23808080%22%20stroke%3D%22%23ccc%22%20stroke-width%3D%22.5%22%20d%3D%22M34.305%2016.234c0%208.83-15.148%2019.158-15.148%2019.158S3.507%2025.065%203.507%2016.1c0-8.505%206.894-14.304%2015.4-14.304%208.504%200%2015.398%205.933%2015.398%2014.438z%22%2F%3E%3Ctext%20transform%3D%22translate%2819%2018.5%29%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20style%3D%22font-family%3A%20Arial%2C%20sans-serif%3Bfont-weight%3Abold%3Btext-align%3Acenter%3B%22%20font-size%3D%2212%22%20text-anchor%3D%22middle%22%3E' + pinz[i].lable + '%3C%2Ftext%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E';

  
   var myLatLng = new google.maps.LatLng(pinz[i].location.lat, pinz[i].location.lon);
   var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
      position: myLatLng,
      map: map,
      icon: image
  });
}
html, body, #map-canvas {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px
}
<div id="map-canvas"></div>
<script async defer src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyDtc3qowwB96ObzSu2vvjEoM2pVhZRQNSA&signed_in=true&callback=initMap&libraries=drawing,places"></script>

You just need to uri-encode your SVG html and replace the one in the image variable after "data:image/svg+xml" in the for loop.

For uri encoding you can use uri-encoder-decoder

You can decode the existing svg code first to get a better understanding of what is written.


As of API version 3.26.10, you can set the marker label with more than one characters. The restriction is lifted.

Try it, it works!

Moreover, using a MarkerLabel object instead of just a string, you can set a number of properties for the appearance, and if using a custom Icon you can set the labelOrigin property to reposition the label.

Source: https://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=8578#c30 (also, you can report any issues regarding this at the above linked thread)


OK, here is one solution I have come up with which is pretty messed up.

I put the full label text into the div using the fontFamily label attribute. Then I use querySelectorAll to match the resulting style attributes to pull out the refs and rewrite the tags once the map has loaded:

var label = "A123";
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
  position: latLon,
  label: {
    text: label,
    // Add in the custom label here
    fontFamily: 'Roboto, Arial, sans-serif, custom-label-' + label
  },
  map: map,
  icon: {
    path: 'custom icon path',
    fillColor: '#000000',
    labelOrigin: new google.maps.Point(26.5, 20),
    anchor: new google.maps.Point(26.5, 43), 
    scale: 1
  }
});

google.maps.event.addListener(map, 'idle', function() {
  var labels = document.querySelectorAll("[style*='custom-label']")
  for (var i = 0; i < labels.length; i++) {
    // Retrieve the custom labels and rewrite the tag content
    var matches = labels[i].getAttribute('style').match(/custom-label-(A\d\d\d)/);
    labels[i].innerHTML = matches[1];
  }
});

This seems pretty brittle. Are there any approaches which are less awful?


You can use MarkerWithLabel with SVG icons.

Update: The Google Maps Javascript API v3 now natively supports multiple characters in the MarkerLabel

proof of concept fiddle (you didn't provide your icon, so I made one up)

Note: there is an issue with labels on overlapping markers that is addressed by this fix, credit to robd who brought it up in the comments.

code snippet:

function initMap() {
  var latLng = new google.maps.LatLng(49.47805, -123.84716);
  var homeLatLng = new google.maps.LatLng(49.47805, -123.84716);

  var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map_canvas'), {
    zoom: 12,
    center: latLng,
    mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
  });

  var marker = new MarkerWithLabel({
    position: homeLatLng,
    map: map,
    draggable: true,
    raiseOnDrag: true,
    labelContent: "ABCD",
    labelAnchor: new google.maps.Point(15, 65),
    labelClass: "labels", // the CSS class for the label
    labelInBackground: false,
    icon: pinSymbol('red')
  });

  var iw = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
    content: "Home For Sale"
  });
  google.maps.event.addListener(marker, "click", function(e) {
    iw.open(map, this);
  });
}

function pinSymbol(color) {
  return {
    path: 'M 0,0 C -2,-20 -10,-22 -10,-30 A 10,10 0 1,1 10,-30 C 10,-22 2,-20 0,0 z',
    fillColor: color,
    fillOpacity: 1,
    strokeColor: '#000',
    strokeWeight: 2,
    scale: 2
  };
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initMap);
html,
body,
#map_canvas {
  height: 500px;
  width: 500px;
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px
}
.labels {
  color: white;
  background-color: red;
  font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Arial", sans-serif;
  font-size: 10px;
  text-align: center;
  width: 30px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}
<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&libraries=geometry,places&ext=.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/googlemaps/v3-utility-library/master/markerwithlabel/src/markerwithlabel.js"></script>
<div id="map_canvas" style="height: 400px; width: 100%;"></div>