android Maps API v2 with custom markers

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I have also stumbled upon this problem. V2 API is a step forward, two steps back. Google, please add an overridable ‘draw’ method on the Marker or GoogleMap classes so we can customize the drawing ourselves.

A possible solution is to generate the bitmap on the fly and attach it to the marker. i.e. Create a canvas, insert the marker bitmap, draw the text next to the marker. This involves some painful calculations (the appropriate canvas size with the marker bitmap and the text next to each other). Unfortunately, there’s no setIcon method in Marker, so every time the text changes, a new marker has to be created. It may be fine if you just have a marker on the map, but with dozens of markers, this may not be feasible. Also there may be memory issue on creating those bitmaps dynamically. A sample code (with just the text):

Bitmap.Config conf = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888; 
Bitmap bmp = Bitmap.createBitmap(200, 50, conf); 
Canvas canvas = new Canvas(bmp);

canvas.drawText("TEXT", 0, 50, paint); // paint defines the text color, stroke width, size
mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions()
                                .position(clickedPosition)
                                //.icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.fromResource(R.drawable.marker2))
                                .icon(BitmapDescriptorFactory.fromBitmap(bmp))
                                .anchor(0.5f, 1)
                                    );

Hopefully, Google will add the appropriate methods so we can do this easily. Damn, I really like the new Map rotate feature in V2 API.

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