How do I store more information in a marker?

Question

I'm using Google Maps v3 and I build in the server side a json collection of location data. So when I receive that, I iterate through that collection and create a marker object for each and every one of them.

For each of these markers, I bind them with the click event, so when the user clicks on a marker in the map, it displays an infoWindow with data related to the associated location.

I have an array to store all the location got from the server that holds the retrieved json objects and their corresponding marker.

The problem is that, even when I have an array that I can reference or iterate through, I need to not only get the marker object when the user clicks on them, but also the location object, that stores more information.

I tried to mantain this array of objects and reference it from the calling object without success, because the function is called by the marker and not the location object. So I thought if it's possible to store more information in the google maps marker object like using a general purpose field.

Please let me know if more information is needed.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes you can, thanks to JavaScript. In this language, objects and hashtables are the same thing¹.

This is how you are creating your marker:

var point = new google.maps.LatLng(40.70, -74.00);
var myMarker = new google.maps.Marker({ position: point, map: map });

And this is how you can add an additional property to your myMarker object:

myMarker.myNewField = 100;

Voila! No need to hold separate arrays of related data. No need of a general purpose field. Simply invent a new property name, and you're good to go.

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¹ A Survey of the JavaScript Programming Language by Douglas Crockford.