Troubleshooting Missing Suburb Display in MapKit JS Marker

Exploring MapKit JS Label Display Issues

In my recent endeavors with MapKit JS, an interesting issue cropped up: some suburb names were not appearing on the map around the markers I placed. For instance, when I placed a marker in the suburb of Hornsby, the map did not display “Hornsby”. Yet, when I moved that marker to the adjacent suburb of Wahroonga, the map then displayed “Hornsby” but not “Wahroonga”. Is this a bug or a feature, and is there something I can do about it? Let’s dive into this somewhat puzzling behavior.

First things first, it’s important to understand the basics of how MapKit JS works. MapKit JS is a powerful tool utilized for integrating Apple’s map services into web applications. While using it to plot markers is quite straightforward, the nuances of how and when it decides to display certain geographical labels on its maps aren’t always clear.

Based on my testing and research, there doesn’t seem to be a built-in, direct control in MapKit JS that allows developers to explicitly set the display of suburb names when placing markers. Labels and names displayed on the map depend heavily on zoom levels and the specific data Apple Maps decides to show. This can be a bit frustrating if you need specific geographical labels to always be visible.

One might wonder: Is there a workaround or a method to control this behavior? While you cannot directly influence built-in label data in MapKit JS, you can create custom annotations or labels. This approach involves placing text labels on your map programmatically. Here’s how you can add text to your markers, potentially to include suburb names or any other relevant information:

const main = async() => {
    await setupMapKitJs();

    const map = new mapkit.Map("map-container");

    const eventCoordinate = new mapkit.Coordinate(-33.7015776, 151.0960029);
    const eventAnnotation = new mapkit.MarkerAnnotation(eventCoordinate, {
        color: "red",
        title: "Hornsby",
        subtitle: "Here is Hornsby",
        glyphText: "H" // an example glyph
    });

    map.showItems([eventAnnotation]);
};

main();

In the above script, I have added a title and a subtitle to the MarkerAnnotation. This allows you to manually label your markers with any text, including the suburb name—thus bypassing the issue of non-displayed suburb names based on the regular map behaviors.

While this approach does add some additional work, it provides more precise control over what’s being displayed, ensuring users of your application have all the geographical context they need, regardless of the intrinsic behaviors of the map service.

Also, don’t forget to adjust the zoom levels when displaying multiple markers to achieve appropriate visibility of your custom labels. An adequate zoom level will help ensure that all marked locations are visible and legible to the users, without overlapping or causing clarity issues.

In summary, while MapKit JS doesn’t offer direct controls for adjusting the visibility of specific map labels like suburb names around markers, using custom annotations can serve as an effective workaround. This allows you not only to customize your maps more deeply but also enhances the user experience by explicitly highlighting the areas of interest.