MKMapView clustering if too many Map Pins nearby

Question

I'm wondering if any of you knows a method (library, category, etc.) to cluster iOS MapAnnotations if there are many of them at the same location (e.g. 4 pieces in about 10m).

It doesn't matter to zoom in because they are still overlapping. I've already tried https://github.com/applidium/ADClusterMapView (and sombe other libs) but all of them are made for showing clusters in zoom-out-scenarios. None of them really respect the distance between annotations when zoomed in.

I'm working on an app with an offline-db so a server-side solution is not an option.

thank you for your help!

Titleholder

Apple have provided the example for doing this thing: Please checkout apple's own example over here: developer.apple.com/library/ios/samplecode/PhotoMap/… – Phobos

Answer 1

You don't need 3rd party framework's anymore. iOS 11 has native clustering support.

You need to implement mapView:clusterAnnotationForMemberAnnotations: method.

Get more details in the Apple example: https://developer.apple.com/sample-code/wwdc/2017/MapKit-Sample.zip

Ratsbane

I cannot find clusterAnnotationForMemberAnnotations method in zip above :( – Princely

@Princely Yes, you're right. The sample does not customize the cluster annotations. That method is for customisation but MapKit creates those annotation objects automatically. You can see from the example how the clustering works by looking at the ViewController.swift. – Ratsbane

Do you know how to manage that "automatic"? I want to change grid size – Princely

@Princely Grid size? Do you mean the tiles? Have a look at raywenderlich.com/823-advanced-mapkit-tutorial-custom-tiles – Ratsbane

no, speaking of clustering, I want to change grid size of that clustering (how far away they are joining together). Or, for example, join red annotations with red, green with green only (with one cluster object) – Princely

Answer 2

You should have a look into CCHMapClusterController project, looks exactly like something you are looking for.

Parisparish

I've already had a look at this one, thanks. Btw. theres also another clusterer: github.com/alexrepty/ARClusteredMapView – Titleholder

The ARCClusteredMapView is not ARC ready, wonder why its named ARC..then :) – Parisparish

It's called ARClusteredMapView ;-) There's a C too much in your comment ;-) But you're right, ARC compatible frameworks, at the first point, look more future-proof – Titleholder

Answer 3

One alternative is the MapBox iOS SDK, which is an open source (BSD) library replicating MapKit behavior. It does both annotation clustering and offline map layers.

http://mapbox.com/mobile

Shapely