Using Closures in Event Listeners

  • This example demonstrates creating a Google Map with 5 randomly placed markers within a defined boundary in Australia.

  • Each marker, when clicked, reveals a part of a secret message using an info window.

  • The code is provided in both TypeScript and JavaScript, utilizing the Google Maps JavaScript API.

  • The sample can be run locally with Git and Node.js or tried online using JSFiddle or Google Cloud Shell.

  • CSS is included to ensure the map fills the browser window and has an explicit height.

This example creates a map with tappable markers displaying a secret message.

Read the documentation.

TypeScript

async function initMap() {
  // Request needed libraries.
  const { Map } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps") as google.maps.MapsLibrary;
  const { AdvancedMarkerElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker") as google.maps.MarkerLibrary;

  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      zoom: 4,
      center: { lat: -25.363882, lng: 131.044922 },
      mapId: "DEMO_MAP_ID",
    }
  );

  const bounds: google.maps.LatLngBoundsLiteral = {
    north: -25.363882,
    south: -31.203405,
    east: 131.044922,
    west: 125.244141,
  };

  // Display the area between the location southWest and northEast.
  map.fitBounds(bounds);

  // Add 5 markers to map at random locations.
  // For each of these markers, give them a title with their index, and when
  // they are clicked they should open an infowindow with text from a secret
  // message.
  const secretMessages = ["This", "is", "the", "secret", "message"];
  const lngSpan = bounds.east - bounds.west;
  const latSpan = bounds.north - bounds.south;

  for (let i = 0; i < secretMessages.length; ++i) {
    const marker = new google.maps.marker.AdvancedMarkerElement({
      position: {
        lat: bounds.south + latSpan * Math.random(),
        lng: bounds.west + lngSpan * Math.random(),
      },
      map: map,
    });

    attachSecretMessage(marker, secretMessages[i]);
  }
}

// Attaches an info window to a marker with the provided message. When the
// marker is clicked, the info window will open with the secret message.
function attachSecretMessage(
  marker: google.maps.marker.AdvancedMarkerElement,
  secretMessage: string
) {
  const infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
    content: secretMessage,
  });

  marker.addListener("click", () => {
    infowindow.open(marker.map, marker);
  });
}

initMap();
index.ts

JavaScript

async function initMap() {
  // Request needed libraries.
  const { Map } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps");
  const { AdvancedMarkerElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker");
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    zoom: 4,
    center: { lat: -25.363882, lng: 131.044922 },
    mapId: "DEMO_MAP_ID",
  });
  const bounds = {
    north: -25.363882,
    south: -31.203405,
    east: 131.044922,
    west: 125.244141,
  };

  // Display the area between the location southWest and northEast.
  map.fitBounds(bounds);

  // Add 5 markers to map at random locations.
  // For each of these markers, give them a title with their index, and when
  // they are clicked they should open an infowindow with text from a secret
  // message.
  const secretMessages = ["This", "is", "the", "secret", "message"];
  const lngSpan = bounds.east - bounds.west;
  const latSpan = bounds.north - bounds.south;

  for (let i = 0; i < secretMessages.length; ++i) {
    const marker = new google.maps.marker.AdvancedMarkerElement({
      position: {
        lat: bounds.south + latSpan * Math.random(),
        lng: bounds.west + lngSpan * Math.random(),
      },
      map: map,
    });

    attachSecretMessage(marker, secretMessages[i]);
  }
}

// Attaches an info window to a marker with the provided message. When the
// marker is clicked, the info window will open with the secret message.
function attachSecretMessage(marker, secretMessage) {
  const infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
    content: secretMessage,
  });

  marker.addListener("click", () => {
    infowindow.open(marker.map, marker);
  });
}

initMap();
index.js

CSS

/* 
 * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}

/* 
 * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. 
 */
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Using Closures in Event Listeners</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map"></div>

    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <script>(g=>{var h,a,k,p="The Google Maps JavaScript API",c="google",l="importLibrary",q="__ib__",m=document,b=window;b=b[c]||(b[c]={});var d=b.maps||(b.maps={}),r=new Set,e=new URLSearchParams,u=()=>h||(h=new Promise(async(f,n)=>{await (a=m.createElement("script"));e.set("libraries",[...r]+"");for(k in g)e.set(k.replace(/[A-Z]/g,t=>"_"+t[0].toLowerCase()),g[k]);e.set("callback",c+".maps."+q);a.src=`https://maps.${c}apis.com/maps/api/js?`+e;d[q]=f;a.onerror=()=>h=n(Error(p+" could not load."));a.nonce=m.querySelector("script[nonce]")?.nonce||"";m.head.append(a)}));d[l]?console.warn(p+" only loads once. Ignoring:",g):d[l]=(f,...n)=>r.add(f)&&u().then(()=>d[l](f,...n))})
        ({key: "AIzaSyB41DRUbKWJHPxaFjMAwdrzWzbVKartNGg", v: "weekly"});</script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

Clone Sample

Git and Node.js are required to run this sample locally. Follow these instructions to install Node.js and NPM. The following commands clone, install dependencies and start the sample application. 

  git clone -b sample-event-closure https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples.git
  cd js-samples
  npm i
  npm start

Other samples can be tried by switching to any branch beginning with sample-SAMPLE_NAME. 

  git checkout sample-SAMPLE_NAME
  npm i
  npm start