Question

Is there a way to change MKAnnotationView style (like from red label with number to green colored label with number).

I want to change this style according to distance from target. My annotation is moving, with user.

I dont want to use remove / add annotation, because it causes “blinking”.
Can it be done someway?

UPDATE:

I am adding code, how I am doing it right now

MKAnnotationView *av = [mapView viewForAnnotation:an];

if ([data->type isMemberOfClass:[UserAnnotationImage class]])
{
    UIImage *img = [UIImage imageNamed: ((UserAnnotationImage *)data->type)->url];
    [av setImage:img];
}
else if ([data->type isMemberOfClass:[UserAnnotationLabel class]])
{

    UIView * v = [av viewWithTag:0];
    v = ((UserAnnotationLabel *)data->type)->lbl;

    av.frame = ((UserAnnotationLabel *)data->type)->lbl.frame;
}
else if ([data->type isMemberOfClass:[UserAnnotationView class]])
{

    UIView * v = [av viewWithTag:0];
    v = ((UserAnnotationView *)data->type)->view;
    av.frame = ((UserAnnotationView *)data->type)->view.frame;
}

Sadly, its not working 🙁

Answer 1

Yes, basically you get a reference to the annotation view and update its contents directly.

Another way, if you have a custom annotation view class, is to have the annotation view monitor the changes it is interested in (or have something outside tell it) and update itself.

The first approach is simpler if you are using a plain MKAnnotationView or MKPinAnnotationView.

Wherever you detect that a change to the view is needed, get a reference to the view by calling the map view’s viewForAnnotation instance method. This is not the same as calling the viewForAnnotation delegate method.

Once you have a reference to the view, you can modify as needed and the changes should appear immediately.

An important point is that the logic you use to update the view outside the delegate method and the logic you have in the viewForAnnotation delegate method must match. This is because the delegate method may get called later (after you’ve updated the view manually) by the map view and when it does, the code there should take the updated data into account.

The best way to do that is to have the annotation view construction code in a common method called both by the delegate method and where you update the view manually.

See change UIImage from MKAnnotation in the MKMapView for an example that updates just the annotation view’s image.

For an example (mostly an idea for an approach) of updating the view using a custom annotation view class, see iPad Mapkit – Change title of "Current Location" which updates the view’s pin color periodically (green, purple, red, green, purple, red, etc).

---

There are too many unknowns in your code to explain why it doesn’t work. For example:

• What is data? Is it annotation-specific (is it related to an)? What is type? Does it change after the annotation has been added to the map?
• Why is data storing entire view objects like a UILabel or UIView instead of just the underlying data that you want to show in those views?
• imageNamed requires the image to be a resource in the project (not any arbitrary url)
• Don’t use a tag of 0 (that’s the default for all views). Start numbering from 1.
• You get a view using viewWithTag but then replace it immediately with another view.

I’ll instead give a more detailed but simple(r) example…

Assume you have an annotation class (the one that implements MKAnnotation) with these properties (in addition to coordinate, title, and subtitle):

@property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL haveImage;
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *labelText;
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *imageName;
@property (nonatomic, assign) CLLocationDistance distanceFromTarget;

To address the “important point” mentioned above (that the viewForAnnotation delegate method and the view-update-code should use the same logic), we’ll create a method that is passed an annotation view and configures it as needed based on the annotation’s properties. This method will then be called both by the viewForAnnotation delegate method and the code that manually updates the view when the annotation’s properties change.

In this example, I made it so that the annotation view shows the image if haveImage is YES otherwise it shows the label. Additionally, the label’s background color is based on distanceFromTarget:

-(void)configureAnnotationView:(MKAnnotationView *)av
{
    MyAnnotationClass *myAnn = (MyAnnotationClass *)av.annotation;

    UILabel *labelView = (UILabel *)[av viewWithTag:1];

    if (myAnn.haveImage)
    {
        //show image and remove label...
        av.image = [UIImage imageNamed:myAnn.imageName];
        [labelView removeFromSuperview];
    }
    else
    {
        //remove image and show label...
        av.image = nil;

        if (labelView == nil)
        {
            //create and add label...
            labelView = [[[UILabel alloc] 
                initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 50, 30)] autorelease];
            labelView.tag = 1;
            labelView.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
            [av addSubview:labelView];
        }

        if (myAnn.distanceFromTarget > 100)
            labelView.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
        else
            labelView.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor];

        labelView.text = myAnn.labelText;
    }
}

The viewForAnnotation delegate method would look like this:

-(MKAnnotationView *)mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView viewForAnnotation:(id<MKAnnotation>)annotation 
{
    if ([annotation isKindOfClass:[MyAnnotationClass class]])
    {
        static NSString *myAnnId = @"myann";
        MKAnnotationView *av = [mapView dequeueReusableAnnotationViewWithIdentifier:myAnnId];
        if (av == nil)
        {
            av = [[[MKAnnotationView alloc] initWithAnnotation:annotation reuseIdentifier:myAnnId] autorelease];
        }
        else
        {
            av.annotation = annotation;
        }

        [self configureAnnotationView:av];

        return av;
    }

    return nil;
}

Finally, the place where the annotation’s properties change and where you want to update the annotation view, the code would look something like this:

ann.coordinate = someNewCoordinate;
ann.distanceFromTarget = theDistanceFromTarget;
ann.labelText = someNewText;
ann.haveImage = YES or NO;
ann.imageName = someImageName;

MKAnnotationView *av = [mapView viewForAnnotation:ann];
[self configureAnnotationView:av];