Question

How i can remember in older versions of Gmaps API was it possible, to make a custom Overlay for adding a Markers on it and than add or remove from main map. Also it was possible to make different groups of results and show/hide it in only one command. In the new reference i can not find it, did they have rename it?

Answer 1

You’re talking about a GLayer – https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/v2/reference#GLayer

It has, in fact, been removed from the v3 API.

In API v3, it’s been left up to the developer to keep track of their overlays and add/remove them from the map as they wish.

The best way to do this is keep your overlays in an array (or an object) and loop through them.

For example, if you had two distinct sets of overlays (infoWindows and markers), you could do something like this:

var overlays = {
    markers : [],
    infoWindows : []
};

    //create a marker and put it in markers
    var marker = new google.maps.Marker();
    overlays.markers.push(marker);

    //create an infoWindow and put it in infoWindows
    var infoWindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow();
    overlays.infoWindows.push(infoWindow);

    //remove all infoWindows from the map
    for(var i=0;i<overlays.infoWindows.length;i++) {
      overlays.infoWindows[i].setMap(null);
    }

    //remove all markers from the map
    for(var i=0;i<overlays.markers.length;i++) {
      overlays.markers[i].setMap(null);
    }

It’s a simplistic example, but hopefully you get the idea: that adding, managing, and removing “groups” of overlays in v3 is left up to the developer.