Question

Is it possible to load the content (i.e. the HTML displayed in the “tooltip”) of a Google Map marker only when the user actually clicks it?

I have a nice Google Map embedded on our site, and it works fine – with just 200 markers at a time. But now we would like to show a substantial number of marker(3900+), and currently all the tiny HTML pages for displaying the tooltips are set when the markers are added. Ideally, this HTML would be loaded using AJAX.

Answer 1

Yes, you will need to load the data you wish when a marker you have added to the map is clicked, by adding a click listener to the marker.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3&sensor=true_or_false"
type="text/javascript"></script>

<div id="map_canvas"> </div>

<script>
     var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-25.363882,131.044922);
      var myOptions = {
        zoom: 4,
        center: myLatlng,
        mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
      }
      map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);


      var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
          position: myLatlng, 
          map: map,
          title:"Hello World!"
      });
      google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {

      // When clicked on the marker I use jquery to request some Html 
      // then show in the contents of an info window
        $.ajax({ 
           url: 'http://www.test.com/get-data/',
           dataType: 'html',
           success: function (data) {
               var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow(
                { content: data,
               size: new google.maps.Size(50,50),
               position: marker.position
              });
            infowindow.open(map);
           }

        });

      });

</script>