Interactions API
The new Interactions API is a toolset that allows you to handle interactions on layers, pre-defined featuresets in evolving basemap styles like Mapbox Standard, and the map itself. The API is available starting from Maps SDK v11.9.0.
The Interactions API is an experimental feature of the Android Maps SDK. To build with it, use the following import statement:
import com.mapbox.maps.MapboxExperimental
To use the API, you define ClickInteraction or LongClickInteraction interaction handlers that target specific map layers, featuresets, or the map itself. When a user interacts with map features belonging to one of these sets, the API will call the appropriate interaction handler for that feature that was clicked or long-clicked.
Add an interaction to a map layer
Add interactions to the map by indicating the layer that should handle the interaction. The interaction will be triggered when a user clicks or long-clicks on a feature rendered on the specified layer. In Jetpack Compose, place the interactions inside the MapboxMap style using the appropriate interaction handler from styleInteractionsState and in Android View applications, use mapboxMap.addInteraction() to add the interaction:
val token = mapboxMap.addInteraction(
ClickInteraction.layer(id = "polygons") { feature, context ->
// Handle tap when a feature from "polygons" is clicked.
true // stops propagation
}
)
// Cancel the token to remove the interaction.
token.cancel()
MapboxMap {
...
style = GenericStyle(
styleState = rememberStyleState {
styleInteractionsState
.onLayerClicked(id = "polygons") { feature, context ->
// Handle tap when a feature from "polygons" is clicked.
true // stops propagation
}
}
)
}
The interaction handlers (ClickInteraction) in the examples above will be called each time a user taps a feature rendered on the polygons layer. The handler receives the feature that was clicked and the context containing information about the event.
You can add an interaction at any time, there is no need to wait for the style to load. If the interaction should be active as long as the MapView is alive, then the cancellation token can be omitted. If there is no layer with the name provided, then no interaction will be added.
Add an interaction with featuresets
Interactions can be added not only to a layer, but also to a featureset. Featuresets are named groups of layers that can be defined in an evolving basemap style. In the Mapbox Standard Style, there are predefined Points-of-Interest (POI), Place Labels, and Buildings featuresets that include all appropriate features in the map. You can add interactions to your map that target these featuresets. Use the pre-defined StandardPoi, StandardPlaceLabels, and StandardBuildings featureset descriptors to enable interactions in the Standard Style.
mapboxMap.addInteraction(
ClickInteraction.standardPoi { poi, context ->
Log.d("Tap at poi:", poi.name!!)
true
}
)
MapboxMap {
...
style = MapboxStandardStyleExperimental(
experimentalStandardStyleState = rememberExperimentalStandardStyleState {
interactionsState.onPoiClicked { poi, context ->
Log.d("Tap at poi:", poi.name!!)
true
}
}
)
}
When you use a predefined featureset, such as .standardPoi, the interaction will return a feature of a matching type (here a StandardPoiFeature). This means you will have access to properties specific to that feature type, such as name in the example above. To learn more about typed features that match the predefined featuresets, read the StandardPoiFeature, StandardPlaceLabelsFeature, and StandardBuildingsFeature documentation.
Set feature states
After a feature is returned from the interaction, you can set its feature state. Setting the feature state allows you to control the appearance of individual features within a featureset.
For example, you may want to highlight individual buildings after a user clicks on them. To do this, you would add a ClickInteraction targeting the .standardBuildings featureset. When a user clicks on a building in this featureset, the building feature is returned as a StandardBuildingsFeature. You then set the feature state for this feature's highlight configuration option to true. By default, highlighted buildings will be displayed in blue, as shown in the image below. You can customize the color of highlighted buildings.
mapboxMap.addInteraction(
ClickInteraction.standardBuildings { building, _ ->
mapboxMap.setFeatureState(building, StandardBuildingsState {
highlight(true)
})
true
}
)
MapboxMap {
...
style = MapboxStandardStyleExperimental(
experimentalStandardStyleState = rememberExperimentalStandardStyleState {
interactionsState.onBuildingsClicked { building, _ ->
building.setStandardBuildingsState {
highlight(true)
}
true
}
}
)
}
Each pre-defined featureset in the Standard Style has appropriate configuration options that can be modified at runtime in this way. Explore the StandardPoiState, StandardPlaceLabelsState and StandardBuildingsState to learn more about the specific configuration options available for each featureset.
Add an interaction to the map itself
You can add a special variant of the Click and LongClick interactions that doesn't take any layer or featureset as an argument. This lets you handle taps on the "map itself". This usually happens when user clicks a place on the map where there are no interactive features, or when the event propagated down to the map. context contains information about the interaction event, such as the point where the tap occurred.
mapboxMap.addInteraction(
ClickInteraction { context ->
Log.d("Click on map itself at:", context.screenCoordinate.toString())
true
}
)
mapboxMap.addInteraction(
LongClickInteraction { context ->
Log.d("Long click on map itself at:", context.screenCoordinate.toString())
true
}
)
MapboxMap {
...
style = GenericStyle(
styleState = rememberStyleState {
styleInteractionsState
.onMapClicked { context ->
Log.d("Click on map itself at:", context.screenCoordinate.toString())
true
}
.onMapLongClicked { context ->
Log.d("Long click on map itself at:", context.screenCoordinate.toString())
true
}
}
)
}
Interactions order and propagation
In the map, there might be many features handling interactions. If a user taps at the point where multiple features are rendered, each of them can have a chance to handle the interaction.
The Maps SDK will invoke each interaction handler (ClickInteraction or LongClickInteraction) one by one in the order that features are rendered. The top-most feature will be invoked first.
So, if there are multiple interactions added to the same target (such as a layer and a featureset), the interactions added last will be called first.
By default, each interaction handler will completely handle the user interaction and stop propagation. If you want to continue propagating the interaction after the particular interaction handler is triggered, then return false in the callback.
Examples
To learn more about working with the Interactions API, explore our examples using this API:
Jetpack Compose example that demonstrates how to add interactions to predefined featuresets in the Mapbox Standard Style.
Android View example that demonstrates how to add interactions to predefined featuresets in the Mapbox Standard Style.
Jetpack Compose example that demonstrates how to add interactions to custom featuresets and the map itself.
Android View example that demonstrates how to add interactions to custom featuresets and the map itself.