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Cover image for Effectively switching mapbox-gl styles
dqunbp
dqunbp

Posted on • Edited on

Effectively switching mapbox-gl styles

#mapboxgl

Hi there!

I wish write about known common problem with mapbox-gl.
At the moment there are some proposals for a solution and some workarounds.

In this article, we see the typical scenario and going to go to implement it.

Conditions of the problem

Let's describe a simple case:

  • We need to add to the map our own GeoJSON source and corresponding layer, before the text labels.
  • When switching the base style, our layer should remain on the map.

We use a straightforward approach with mapbox-gl events.

Define the source 

// constants.js
const GEOJSON_FEATURE = {
  type: "Feature",
  properties: {},
  geometry: {
    type: "Polygon",
    coordinates: [
      [
        [-66.96466, 44.8097],
        [-67.79035274928509, 47.066248887716995],
        [-69.23708614772835, 47.44777598732787],
        [-71.08482, 45.3052400000002],
        [-70.64573401557249, 43.090083319667144],
        [-66.96466, 44.8097],
      ],
    ],
  },
};
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Create the map 

// index.js
mapboxgl.accessToken = <your token here>;
var map = new mapboxgl.Map({
  container: "map",
  style: "mapbox://styles/mapbox/streets-v11",
  center: [-68.13734351262877, 45.137451890638886],
  zoom: 5,
});
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Improve addLayer function

If we use beforeId that not exists already on the map, we get an error
Let's create addLayerBefore function to escape this

function addLayerBefore(addLayerFn, layer, beforeId) {
// check beforeId defined and exists on the map
const beforeLayer = Boolean(beforeId) && map.getLayer(beforeId);
  if (beforeLayer && beforeId === beforeLayer.id) addLayerFn(layer, beforeId);
  else {
    console.warn(
      `Not found layer with id '${beforeId}'.\nLayer '${layer.id}' added without before.`
    );
    addLayerFn(layer);
  }
}
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Define add data function

Add's GeoJSON source with fill layer, before waterway-label in current example it places polygon before the map text labels

function addMaineLayer() {
  map.addSource("maine", {
    type: "geojson",
    data: {
      type: "Feature",
      geometry: GEOJSON_FEATURE
  });

  // define the function to add layer
  const addLayer = (layer, beforeId) => map.addLayer(layer, beforeId);

  addLayerBefore(
    addLayer,
    {
      id: "maine",
      type: "fill",
      source: "maine",
      layout: {},
      paint: {
        "fill-color": "#088",
        "fill-opacity": 0.8
      }
    },
    "waterway-label"
  );
}
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Setup events

We should call addMaineLayer function when:

  • map initially loads with load event
  • map changes the style with styledata event 
map.on("load", function () {
  // add layer to the map on load
  addMaineLayer();

  const layerList = document.getElementById("menu");
  const inputs = layerList.getElementsByTagName("input");

  function switchLayer(layer) {
    // addMaineLayer fn will be called once on layer switched
    map.once("styledata", addMaineLayer);
    const layerId = layer.target.id;
    map.setStyle("mapbox://styles/mapbox/" + layerId);
  }

  // set toggle base style events
  for (let i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++) {
    inputs[i].onclick = switchLayer;
  }
});
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Let's check the result

That is!
In the next article we going to go implement this with RxJS!

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