Implementing MarkerClusterer to Google Maps API

Question

I know this has been covered a lot before and its a simple tweak to make it work but that's making it all the more frustrating.

I'm new to Google Maps API V3 and Javascript as a whole. I've managed to make a map with markers on but I'm wanting to implement the marker clusterer feature.

My code is as follows:

<script type="text/javascript">
 var markers = [
['Wathegar',  58.443420, -3.247061, '/Projects/Wathegar/', '/images/MapsIcons/operational.png'],
['Wathegar 2',  58.436726, -3.216505, '/Projects/Wathegar_2/', '/images/MapsIcons/consented.png'],
['Sibmister',  58.570869,  -3.429623, '/Projects/Sibmister/', '/images/MapsIcons/planning.png'],
['Humbleburn',  54.851982,  -1.651425, '/Projects/Humbleburn/', '/images/MapsIcons/planning.png'],
['Achlachan',  58.449348, -3.452797, '/Projects/Achlachan/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Bonwick',   53.955025,  -0.227451, '/Projects/Bonwick/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Garton',    54.033081,  -0.494127, '/Projects/Garton/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Hill of Lybster',  58.603081,   -3.679004, '/Projects/Hill-of-Lybster/', '/images/MapsIcons/planning.png'],
['Moota',   54.710442,    -3.331947, '/Projects/Moota/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Sherburn Stone',  54.770432,   -1.4593797, '/Projects/Sherburn-Stone/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Spring Brook',  53.498360,    -1.624646, '/Projects/Spring_Brook/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Sunnyside',   55.387691,  -3.949585, '/Projects/Sunnyside/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
['Thacksons Well',  52.955578,   -0.759824, '/Projects/Thacksons_Well/', '/images/MapsIcons/pre-planning.png'],
];
function initializeMaps() {
var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng( 56.2, -2,5);
var myOptions = {
    zoom: 6,
    center:latlng,
    mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.HYBRID,
    mapTypeControl: false,
    panControl: false,
    zoomControl: true,
  zoomControlOptions: {
style: google.maps.ZoomControlStyle.SMALL
  },
    streetViewControl: false,
};
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"),myOptions);
var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow(), marker, i;
for (i = 0; i < markers.length; i++) {  
    marker = new google.maps.Marker({
        position: new google.maps.LatLng(markers[i][1], markers[i][2]),
        map: map,
        url:markers[i][3],
        icon:markers[i][4]
});
google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
window.location.href = this.url;
});
}
}
</script>

I've tried rebuilding it in the format used in this example along with a few other blogs but I don't have a good enough understanding of JS to know what I need to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

The format of the JSON is OK, it doesn't have any effect to the MarkerClusterer.

What you are missing is to create a instance of the MarkerClusterer and to add the markers to this instance:

var mc = new MarkerClusterer(map),//MarkerClusterer-instance
    marker, i;
for (i = 0; i < markers.length; i++) {  
    marker = new google.maps.Marker({
        position: new google.maps.LatLng(markers[i][1], markers[i][2]),
        map: map,
        url:markers[i][3],
       icon:markers[i][4]
});

google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
 window.location.href = this.url;
});
mc.addMarker(marker);//add the marker to the MarkerClusterer
}

Please note: the linked page uses the MarkerClusterer for Maps-API-V2, for V3 use this updated Version: http://google-maps-utility-library-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/markerclusterer/src/markerclusterer_compiled.js