Hide/Show layerGroups in Leaflet with own Buttons

Question

I have a leaflet map with several markers in it. I've put these markers in "Layer Groups" to be able to show and hide the marker-categories. These are my markers:

var aa = L.marker([48.185556, 11.620278]).bindPopup('AA'),
bb = L.marker([48.152222, 11.592778]).bindPopup('BB'),
cc = L.marker([48.161209, 11.597989]).bindPopup('CC'),
dd = L.marker([48.14350, 11.58775]).bindPopup('DD'),
ee = L.marker([48.14989, 11.59094]).bindPopup('EE'),
ff = L.marker([48.15958, 11.60608]).bindPopup('FF');

var restaurants = L.layerGroup([aa, bb]);
var sport = L.layerGroup([cc, dd]);
var sights = L.layerGroup([ee, ff]);

That works quite well when I use Layers Control and overlayMaps:

var overlayMaps = {
"Restaurants": restaurants,
"Sport": sport,
"Sights": sights
};

L.control.layers(overlayMaps).addTo(map); 

But now I want to be able to make that work (hide and show the layer groups) with my own "buttons" (icons). My html:

    <div class="header">
            <a href="#">
            <span class="fontawesome-food"></span>
            <span class="fontawesome-heart-empty"></span>
            <span class="fontawesome-eye-open"></span>
            </a>
    </div>

I guess it's possible with removeLayer or something like that but I just don't get it how to make it work (show and hide restaurants-, sport- and sights-layer). So, I want to acchieve it that my layers are visible when I click on the Icons in my header and that they disappear when I click a second time. Thanks so much!

Answer 1

First you need a link for each layer

<ul>
    <li><a id="restaurants" href="#">restaurants</a></li>
    <li><a id="sport" href="#">sport</a></li>
    <li><a id="sights" href="#">sights</a></li>
</ul>

Then, for each link you can write a handler like this (example with jQuery)

$("#restaurants").click(function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    if(map.hasLayer(restaurants)) {
        $(this).removeClass('selected');
        map.removeLayer(restaurants);
    } else {
        map.addLayer(restaurants);        
        $(this).addClass('selected');
   }
});

You have an example here http://jsfiddle.net/FranceImage/c5Yfb/

Answer 2

First you need the classnames for the three buttons (restaurants, sports and sights). Then in Javscript you add: `

    <script>
        var restaurants = document.getElementsByClassName("restaurants");
        var sports = document.getElementsByClassName("sports");
        var sights = document.getElementsByClassName("sights");

        restaurants.onclick = function(e){

            // setFilter takes a feature object and returns 
               true to show it and false to hide
            map.featureLayer.setFilter(function(f) {
                return f.properties['marker-symbol'] === 'restaurants';
            });
            return false;
        };

It is the setFilter-function that you will want to use and here is a good example Mpabox - Filtering Markers.

The solution from @FranceImage should also work just fine.