Adding a pin annotation to a map view on a long press in swift

Question

I'm trying to make an iPhone app which requires users to be able to long press on a place on a map view to drop a pin there. Does anybody know how this is done?

The behaviour is observable in apple maps when you long press on the screen. It will drop a pin and present an annotation saying "dropped pin"

itzhar · Answer 1 · 2016-03-30T10:15:00.090

add UILongPressGestureRecognizer to your MapView

var uilgr = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "addAnnotation:")
uilgr.minimumPressDuration = 2.0

map.add (uilgr)

//IOS 9
map.addGestureRecognizer(uilgr)

Add annotation on Long press detect - func:

func addAnnotation(gestureRecognizer:UIGestureRecognizer){
    if gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerState.Began {
        var touchPoint = gestureRecognizer.locationInView(map)
        var newCoordinates = map.convertPoint(touchPoint, toCoordinateFromView: map)
        let annotation = MKPointAnnotation()
        annotation.coordinate = newCoordinates

        CLGeocoder().reverseGeocodeLocation(CLLocation(latitude: newCoordinates.latitude, longitude: newCoordinates.longitude), completionHandler: {(placemarks, error) -> Void in
            if error != nil {
                println("Reverse geocoder failed with error" + error.localizedDescription)
                return
            }

        if placemarks.count > 0 {
            let pm = placemarks[0] as! CLPlacemark

            // not all places have thoroughfare & subThoroughfare so validate those values
            annotation.title = pm.thoroughfare + ", " + pm.subThoroughfare
            annotation.subtitle = pm.subLocality
            self.map.addAnnotation(annotation)
            println(pm)
        }
        else {
            annotation.title = "Unknown Place"
            self.map.addAnnotation(annotation)
            println("Problem with the data received from geocoder")
        }
        places.append(["name":annotation.title,"latitude":"\(newCoordinates.latitude)","longitude":"\(newCoordinates.longitude)"])
    })
}
}

or you can add annotation without any title:

func action(gestureRecognizer:UIGestureRecognizer){
    var touchPoint = gestureRecognizer.locationInView(map)
    var newCoordinates = map.convertPoint(touchPoint, toCoordinateFromView: map)
    let annotation = MKPointAnnotation()
    annotation.coordinate = newCoordinates
    map.addAnnotation(annotation)
}

It seems in iOS 9 the `map.add(uilgr)` should be `map.addGestureRecognizer (uilgr)` — Ri_, Dec 09 '15 at 08:28

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 18 '17 at 15:40

11

1) Instantiate a UILongPressGestureRecognizer and add it to the MKMapView.

2) When the selector gets called after the user has a long press, call the addAnnotation method in MKMapView with the appropriate title and coordinate.

3) Then make sure you conform to the MKMapViewDelegate and implement viewForAnnotation: which will be called right after you add the annotation and return a MKPinAnnotationView

edited Mar 18 '17 at 15:40

Joe

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answered Jun 16 '15 at 04:14

Josh Hamet

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with step 2: How am I to find the appropriate coordinate? – Matt Spoon Jun 16 '15 at 04:15
4

convertPoint(_:toCoordinateFromView:) will allow you to convert the CGPoint selected which can be obtained from the UILongPressGestureRecognizer to the actual coordinate in the MKMapView – Josh Hamet Jun 16 '15 at 04:18
convertPoint must be used on the MKMapView itself, and not a "regular" ViewController. – Feb 13 '19 at 15:32

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 25 '20 at 18:52

First declare UIGestureRecognizer in viewDidLoad

let longGesture = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(addWaypoint(longGesture:)))
mapView.addGestureRecognizer(longGesture)

Second add the function for longPress

@objc func addWaypoint(longGesture: UIGestureRecognizer) {

    let touchPoint = longGesture.location(in: mapView)
    let wayCoords = mapView.convert(touchPoint, toCoordinateFrom: mapView)
    let location = CLLocation(latitude: wayCoords.latitude, longitude: wayCoords.longitude)
    myWaypoints.append(location)

    let wayAnnotation = MKPointAnnotation()
    wayAnnotation.coordinate = wayCoords
    wayAnnotation.title = "waypoint"
    myAnnotations.append(wayAnnotation)
}

I recommend creating the annotations in an array that will serve you later if you want to delete it, like this...

var myAnnotations = [MKPointAnnotation]()

If you have different annotations, you can delete only the annotations you want, for that when you add a new annotation add to the array. To delete only one group of annotations just do the following

for dots in myAnnotations{
    mapView.removeAnnotation(dots)
}

To delete all annotations try

mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)

Apologies for the translation....

You can't append MKPointAnnotation to CLLocation array. Please edit your answer. — Dohab, Feb 26 '19 at 20:27

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 17 '17 at 01:58

2

Update Swift3

func action(gestureRecognizer:UIGestureRecognizer){
    let touchPoint = gestureRecognizer.location(in: mapView)
    let newCoordinates = mapView.convert(touchPoint, toCoordinateFrom: mapView)
    let annotation = MKPointAnnotation()
    annotation.coordinate = newCoordinates
    mapView.addAnnotation(annotation)
}

edited Mar 17 '17 at 01:58

Icarus

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answered Mar 16 '17 at 22:02

K. Sergey

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Adding a pin annotation to a map view on a long press in swift

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