--- layout: api title: v1.5.1 categories: api version: v1.5.1 navigation: - title: Map nav: - title: L.mapbox.map sub: - title: map.getTileJSON sub: - title: Layers nav: - title: L.mapbox.tileLayer sub: - tileLayer.getTileJSON - tileLayer.setFormat - title: L.mapbox.gridLayer sub: - gridLayer.getTileJSON - gridLayer.getData - title: L.mapbox.markerLayer sub: - markerLayer.loadURL - markerLayer.loadID - markerLayer.setFilter - markerLayer.getFilter - markerLayer.setGeoJSON - markerLayer.getGeoJSON - title: Geocoding nav: - title: L.mapbox.geocoder sub: - geocoder.query - geocoder.reverseQuery - title: Controls nav: - title: L.mapbox.infoControl sub: - infoControl.addInfo - infoControl.removeInfo - title: L.mapbox.legendControl sub: - legendControl.addLegend - legendControl.removeLegend - title: L.mapbox.gridControl sub: - gridControl.hide - gridControl.setTemplate - title: L.mapbox.geocoderControl sub: - geocoderControl.setURL - geocoderControl.setID - geocoderControl.setTileJSON - geocoderControl.on - title: L.mapbox.shareControl sub: - title: Markers nav: - title: L.mapbox.marker.icon sub: - title: L.mapbox.marker.style sub: - title: Utility nav: - title: L.mapbox.sanitize sub: - title: L.mapbox.template sub: - title: Mobile nav: - title: Theming nav: --- {% raw %}

Map

L.mapbox.map(element, id|url|tilejson, options)

Create and automatically configure a map with layers, markers, and interactivity.

Extends: L.Map

Options Value Description
element (required) string Must be the id of an element, or a DOM element reference.
id or url or tilejson string if id or url object if tilejson url can be
  • a map id string examples.map-foo
  • a URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json
  • a TileJSON object, from your own Javascript code
options object If provided, it is the same options as provided to L.Map with the following additions:
  • tileLayer (boolean). Whether or not to add a L.mapbox.tileLayer based on the TileJSON. Default: true
  • markerLayer (boolean). Whether or not to add a L.mapbox.markerLayer based on the TileJSON. Default: true.
  • gridLayer (boolean). Whether or not to add a L.mapbox.gridLayer based on the TileJSON. Default: true.
  • legendControl (boolean). Whether or not to add a L.mapbox.legendControl. Default: true.

Example:

// map refers to a <div> element with the ID map
// examples.map-4l7djmvo is the ID of a map on MapBox.com
var map = L.mapbox.map('map', 'examples.map-4l7djmvo');

// map refers to a <div> element with the ID map
// This map will have no layers initially
var map = L.mapbox.map('map');

Returns: a map object

map.getTileJSON()

Returns this map's TileJSON object which determines its tile source, zoom bounds and other metadata.

Returns: the TileJSON object

Layers

L.mapbox.tileLayer(id|url|tilejson, options)

You can add a tiled layer to your map with L.mapbox.tileLayer(), a simple interface to layers from MapBox and elsewhere.

Extends: L.TileLayer

Options Value Description
id or url or tilejson (required) string if id or url object if tilejson Value must be
  • An id string examples.map-foo
  • A URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json
  • A TileJSON object, from your own Javascript code
options object The second argument is optional. If provided, it is the same options as provided to L.TileLayer with one addition:
  • retinaVersion, if provided, is an alternative value for the first argument to L.mapbox.tileLayer which, if retina is detected, is used instead.

If detectRetina is set to true and the map in question supports auto-scaling, then a scaled version will automatically be useful if retina is detected and you don't provide an explicit retinaVersion to be used.

Example:

// the second argument is optional
var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-20v6611k');

// you can also provide a full url to a TileJSON resource
var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json');

// if provided, you can support retina tiles
var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-20v6611k', {
    tileLayer: {
        detectRetina: true,
        // if retina is detected, this layer is used instead
        retinaVersion: 'examples.map-zswgei2n'
    }
});

// if this map supports auto-scaling, `detectRetina` will automatically
// use scaled tiles when retina is detected.
var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-20v6611k', {
    tileLayer: {
        detectRetina: true,
    }
});

Returns a L.mapbox.tileLayer object.

tileLayer.getTileJSON()

Returns this layer's TileJSON object which determines its tile source, zoom bounds and other metadata.

Example:

var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-20v6611k')
    // since layers load asynchronously through AJAX, use the
    // `.on` function to listen for them to be loaded before
    // calling `getTileJSON()`
    .on('load', function() {
    // get TileJSON data from the loaded layer
    var TileJSON = layer.getTileJSON();
});

Returns: the TileJSON object

tileLayer.setFormat(format)

Set the image format of tiles in this layer. You can use lower-quality tiles in order to load maps faster

Options Value Description
format string string an image format. valid options are: 'png', 'png32', 'png64', 'png128', 'png256', 'jpg70', 'jpg80', 'jpg90'

Example:

// Downsample tiles for faster loading times on slow
// internet connections
var layer = L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-20v6611k', {
    format: 'jpg70'
});

Returns: the layer object

L.mapbox.gridLayer(id|url|tilejson, options)

An L.mapbox.gridLayer loads UTFGrid tiles of interactivity into your map, which you can easily access with L.mapbox.gridControl.

Options Value Description
id or url or tilejson (required) string if id or url object if tilejson
  • An id string examples.map-foo
  • A URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json
  • A TileJSON object, from your own Javascript code

Example:

// the second argument is optional
var layer = L.mapbox.gridLayer('examples.map-20v6611k');

Returns a L.mapbox.gridLayer object.

gridLayer.getTileJSON()

Returns this layer's TileJSON object which determines its tile source, zoom bounds and other metadata.

Example:

var layer = L.mapbox.gridLayer('examples.map-20v6611k')
    // since layers load asynchronously through AJAX, use the
    // `.on` function to listen for them to be loaded before
    // calling `getTileJSON()`
    .on('load', function() {
    // get TileJSON data from the loaded layer
    var TileJSON = layer.getTileJSON();
});

Returns: the TileJSON object

gridLayer.getData(latlng, callback)

Load data for a given latitude, longitude point on the map, and call the callback function with that data, if any.

Options Value Description
latlng object latlng a http://leafletjs.com/reference.html#latlng
callback function callback a function that is called with the grid data as an argument

Returns: the L.mapbox.gridLayer object

L.mapbox.markerLayer(id|url|tilejson, options)

L.mapbox.markerLayer provides an easy way to integrate GeoJSON from MapBox and elsewhere into your map.

Options Value Description
id or url or tilejson string if id or url object if tilejson Must be either
  • An id string examples.map-foo
  • A URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json
  • A GeoJSON object, from your own Javascript code
  • null, if you wish to only provide options and not initial data.
options object If provided, it is the same options as provided to http://leafletjs.com/reference.html#featuregroup, as well as:
  • filter: A function that accepts a feature object and returns true or false to indicate whether it should be displayed on the map. This can be changed later using setFilter.
  • sanitizer: A function that accepts a string containing tooltip data, and returns a sanitized result for HTML display. The default will remove dangerous script content, and is recommended.

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer(geojson)
    .addTo(map);

Returns a L.mapbox.markerLayer object.

markerLayer.loadURL(url)

Load GeoJSON data for this layer from the URL given by url.

Options Value Description
url string A map id

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer()
    .addTo(map);

markerLayer.loadURL('my_local_markers.geojson');

Returns: the layer object

markerLayer.loadID(id)

Load marker GeoJSON data from a map with the given id on MapBox.

Options Value Description
url (required) string A map id

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer()
    .addTo(map);

// loads markers from the map `examples.map-0l53fhk2` on MapBox,
// if that map has markers
markerLayer.loadID('examples.map-0l53fhk2');

Returns: the layer object

markerLayer.setFilter(filter)

Sets the filter function for this data layer.

Options Value Description
filter (required) function a function that takes GeoJSON features and returns true to show and false to hide features.

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer(geojson)
    // hide all markers
    .setFilter(function() { return false; })
    .addTo(map);

Returns the markerLayer object.

markerLayer.getFilter()

Gets the filter function for this data layer.

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer(geojson)
    // hide all markers
    .setFilter(function() { return false; })
    .addTo(map);

// get the filter function
var fn = markerLayer.getFilter()

Returns the filter function.

markerLayer.setGeoJSON(geojson)

Set the contents of a markers layer: run the provided features through the filter function and then through the factory function to create elements for the map. If the layer already has features, they are replaced with the new features. An empty array will clear the layer of all features.

Options Value Description
geojson (required) object features, an array of GeoJSON feature objects, or omitted to get the current value.

Example:

var markerLayer = L.mapbox.markerLayer(geojson)
    .addTo(map);
// a simple GeoJSON featureset with a single point
// with no properties
markerLayer.setGeoJSON({
    type: "FeatureCollection",
    features: [{
        type: "Feature",
        geometry: {
            type: "Point",
            coordinates: [102.0, 0.5]
        },
        properties: { }
    }]
});

Returns the markerLayer object

markerLayer.getGeoJSON()

Get the contents of this layer as GeoJSON data.

Returns the GeoJSON represented by this layer

Geocoding

L.mapbox.geocoder(id|url)

A low-level interface to geocoding, useful for more complex uses and reverse-geocoding.

Options Value Description
id or url string Value must be
  • An id string examples.map-foo
  • A URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json

Returns a L.mapbox.geocoder object.

geocoder.query(queryString, callback)

Queries the geocoder with a query string, and returns its result, if any.

Options Value Description
queryString (required) string a query, expressed as a string, like 'Arkansas'
callback (required) function a callback

The callback is called with arguments

  1. An error, if any
  2. The result. This is an object with the following members:

     {
         results: // raw results
         latlng: // a map-friendly latlng array
         bounds: // geojson-style bounds of the first result
         lbounds: // leaflet-style bounds of the first result
     }

Returns: the geocoder object. The return value of this function is not useful - you must use a callback to get results.

geocoder.reverseQuery(location, callback)

Queries the geocoder with a location, and returns its result, if any.

Options Value Description
location (required) object A query, expressed as an object:
  • [lon, lat] // an array of lon, lat
  • { lat: 0, lon: 0 } // a lon, lat object
  • { lat: 0, lng: 0 } // a lng, lat object
The first argument can also be an array of objects in that form to geocode more than one item.
callback (required) function The callback is called with arguments
  • An error, if any
  • The result. This is an object of the raw result from MapBox.

Returns: the geocoder object. The return value of this function is not useful - you must use a callback to get results.

Controls

L.mapbox.infoControl(options)

A map control that shows a toggleable info container. This is triggered by default and attribution is auto-detected from active layers and added to the info container.

Options Value Description
options optional object An options object. Beyond the default options for map controls, this object has a two additional parameters:
  • editLink: A boolean that adds an Improve this map link to your map allowing users to make edits to OpenStreetMap from the current map coordinates being viewed.
  • sanitizer: A function that accepts a string, and returns a sanitized result for HTML display. The default will remove dangerous script content, and is recommended.

Example:

var map = L.mapbox.map('map').setView([38, -77], 5);
map.addControl(L.mapbox.infoControl());

Returns: a L.mapbox.infoControl object.

infoControl.addInfo(info)

Adds an info string to infoControl.

Options Value Description
info required string A string which may contain HTML. It will be sanitized by the infoControl's sanitizer option.

infoControl.removeInfo(info)

Removes an info string from infoControl.

Options Value Description
info required string Info to remove.

L.mapbox.legendControl(options)

A map control that shows legends added to maps in MapBox. Legends are auto-detected from active layers.

Options Value Description
options optional object An options object. Beyond the default options for map controls, this object has one special parameter: sanitizer: A function that accepts a string, and returns a sanitized result for HTML display. The default will remove dangerous script content, and is recommended.

Example:

var map = L.mapbox.map('map').setView([38, -77], 5);
map.addControl(L.mapbox.legendControl());

Returns: a L.mapbox.legendControl object.

legendControl.addLegend(legend)

Adds a legend to the legendControl.

Options Value Description
legend required string A string which may contain HTML. It will be sanitized by the legendControl's sanitizer option.

legendControl.removeLegend(legend)

Removes a legend from the legendControl.

Options Value Description
legend required string legend data to remove.

L.mapbox.gridControl(layer, options)

Interaction is what we call interactive parts of maps that are created with the powerful tooltips & regions system in TileMill. Under the hood, it's powered by the open UTFGrid specification.

Options Value Description
layer L.mapbox.gridLayer The first argument must be a layer created with L.mapbox.gridLayer()
options object Valid options are:
  • sanitizer: A function that accepts a string containing interactivity data, and returns a sanitized result for HTML display. The default will remove dangerous script content, and is recommended.
  • template: A string in the Mustache template language that will be evaluated with data from the grid to produce HTML for the interaction.
  • follow: Whether the tooltip should follow the mouse in a constant relative position, or should be fixed in the top-right side of the map. By default, this is false and the tooltip is stationary.
  • pinnable: Whether clicking will 'pin' the tooltip open and expose a 'close' button for the user to close the tooltip. By default, this is true.
  • touchTeaser: On touch devices, show the teaser formatter if there is no output from the full formatter. By default, this is true.
  • location: Evaluate the location formatter on click events, and if it provides output, navigate to that location. By default, this is true.

Example:

var map = L.mapbox.map('map').setView([38, -77], 5);
var gridLayer = L.mapbox.gridLayer('examples.map-8ced9urs');
map.addLayer(L.mapbox.tileLayer('examples.map-8ced9urs'));
map.addLayer(gridLayer);
map.addControl(L.mapbox.gridControl(gridLayer));

Returns: a L.mapbox.gridControl object.

gridControl.hide()

If a tooltip is currently shown by the gridControl, hide and close it.

Returns: the L.mapbox.gridControl object.

gridControl.setTemplate(template)

Change the Mustache template used to transform the UTFGrid data in the map's interactivity into HTML for display.

Options Value Description
template string A string of Mustache template code for popups.

Returns: the L.mapbox.gridControl object.

L.mapbox.geocoderControl(id|url, options)

Adds geocoder functionality as well as a UI element to a map. This uses the MapBox Geocoding API.

This function is currently in private beta: Contact MapBox before using this functionality.
Options Value Description
id or url (required) string Either a
  • An id string examples.map-foo
  • A URL to TileJSON, like http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-0l53fhk2.json
options object An options argument with the same options as the L.Control class, as well as:
  • keepOpen: a boolean for whether the control will stay open always rather than being toggled. Default false.

Example:

var map = L.map('map')
    .setView([37, -77], 5)
    .addControl(L.mapbox.geocoderControl('examples.map-i875kd35'));

Returns a L.mapbox.geocoderControl object.

geocoderControl.setURL(url)

Set the url used for geocoding.

Options Value Description
url string A geocoding url

Returns: the geocoder control object

geocoderControl.setID(id)

Set the map id used for geocoding.

Options Value Description
id string A map id to geocode from

Returns: the geocoder control object

geocoderControl.setTileJSON(tilejson)

Set the TileJSON used for geocoding.

Options Value Description
tilejson object A TileJSON object

Returns: the geocoder object

geocoderControl.on(event, callback)

Bind a listener to an event emitted by the geocoder control. Supported additional events are

Options Value Description
event string
  • found: success in finding a location. Called with a single argument, the result.
  • error: failure to find a location. Called with the raw HTTP error from MapBox.

L.mapbox.shareControl(id|url, options)

Adds a "Share" button to the map, which can be used to share the map to Twitter or Facebook, or generate HTML for a map embed.

Extends: L.Control

Options Value Description
id or url optional string Either a
options object Options for L.Control Also accepts the following options:
  • url: the URL of a page to which the share control will link instead of the URL of the current page or that specified in TileJSON data.

Example:

var map = L.map('map', 'examples.map-i875kd35')
    .setView([37, -77], 5)
    .addControl(L.mapbox.shareControl());

Returns: Returns a L.mapbox.shareControl object.

Markers

L.mapbox.marker.icon(feature)

A core icon generator used in L.mapbox.marker.style

Options Value Description
feature object A GeoJSON feature object

Returns:

A L.Icon object with custom settings for iconUrl, iconSize, iconAnchor, and popupAnchor.

L.mapbox.marker.style(feature, latlng)

An icon generator for use in conjunction with pointToLayer to generate markers from the MapBox Markers API and support the simplestyle-spec for features.

Options Value Description
feature object A GeoJSON feature object
latlng object The latitude, longitude position of the marker

Examples:

L.geoJson(geoJson, {
    pointToLayer: L.mapbox.marker.style,
});

Returns:

A L.Marker object with the latitude, longitude position and a styled marker

Utility

L.mapbox.sanitize(string)

A HTML sanitization function, with the same effect as the default value of the sanitizer option of L.mapbox.markerLayer, L.mapbox.gridControl, and L.mapbox.legendControl.

Options Value Description
text string String of content you wish to sanitize.

L.mapbox.template(template, data)

A mustache template rendering function, as used by the templating feature provided by L.mapbox.gridControl.

Options Value Description
template string The template string
data object Data you wish to pass into the template string

Example:

var output = L.mapbox.template('Name: {{name}}', {name: 'John'});
// output is "Name: John"

Mobile

MapBox.js is optimized for mobile devices and small screens by default. There are, however, best practices to make sure your map always looks its best.

Viewport

Modern mobile browsers now support scaling of webpages by leveraging the meta tag viewport. This enlarges the window making your map look better on a mobile device. Simply include this in the head of your document:

<meta name='viewport' content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no' />

Scrolling

If you're planning on having a page that has large amounts of scrolling, try to avoid a large map height. Having a 'tall' map can cause the user to get stuck on the map while scrolling. Another way around this is to disable dragging for mobile devices: map.dragging.disable();

Retina

Having the ability to use retina tiles when the device supports them is easy. When creating the map, use the detectRetina to verify if retina is available and retinaVersion to use a tilelayer which is designed for retina screens.

var map = L.mapbox.map('map', 'your.mapid', {
    tileLayer: {
        detectRetina: true,
        retinaVersion: 'your.mapid'
    }
}).setView([40, -74.50], 9);

Some MapBox maps support switching to retina scale automatically: if you're using one of these maps, you can simply set detectRetina and the higher-scale tiles will be used when retina is detected.

var map = L.mapbox.map('map', 'your.mapid', {
    tileLayer: {
        detectRetina: true
    }
}).setView([40, -74.50], 9);

Theming

Dark theme

Mapbox.js implements a simple, light style on all interaction elements. A dark theme is available by applying class="dark" to the map div.

Example:

<div id="map" class="dark"></div>
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