Android Google Maps snippet auto update in InfoWindow

Question

I'm using Google Maps in my app with few markers. Every few seconds I'm loading from API markers positions. Each marker has set title and snippet. In snippet I would like to display time when data was loaded.

Problem is that when user clicked on one of the markers and InfoWindow with title and snippet is visible then after that I change the snippet & the content but the content on visible InfoWindow is not changed - user has to click on the map to hide InfoWindow and click again on marker - then the content is correct.

Is it possible to refresh InfoWindow content after title or snippet has changed?

Answer 1

I found solution using Android Maps Extensions https://github.com/mg6maciej/android-maps-extensions.

Call this after update markers data:

    Marker m = map.getMarkerShowingInfoWindow();
    if (m != null && !m.isCluster()) {
        m.showInfoWindow();
    }

Answer 2

Take note that in the documentation of Google Maps Android API that:

The info window that is drawn is not a live view. The view is rendered as an image (using View.draw(Canvas)) at the time it is returned. This means that any subsequent changes to the view will not be reflected by the info window on the map. To update the info window later (for example, after an image has loaded), call showInfoWindow(). Furthermore, the info window will not respect any of the interactivity typical for a normal view such as touch or gesture events. However you can listen to a generic click event on the whole info window as described in the section below.

Then, if you want to do realtime functionality. I suggest learning how to use Firebase with Google maps.

What is Firebase?

Firebase is an application platform with many features. This tutorial uses its Realtime Database. Data is stored as JSON, is synced to all connected clients in real time, and is available even when your app goes offline.