iOS - How to limit the MapView to a specific region?

Question

I have the following problem:

I have a "drawn map" (image) which I add to the MapView as an Overlay. No Problem with that.. but I need to limit the MapView to the region of the Overlay, so a user isn't able to scroll/zoom outside of this region.. but it should be possible to scroll/zoom inside the "bounds" of the overlay - means I cannot just disable zoom/scrolling for the MapView.

Are there any ideas/solution on this topic? The reason for using the MapView/-Kit is that I need to add various POIs to the custom map. This may become more complex when just using an ImageView+ScrollView for presenting the custom map.

I've researched alot on this topic, but I didn't found a nice solution.

Any help is appreciated!

Best Regards, Christian

Edit: This is our solution: You supply a topleft and a bottomright coordinate to limit the map. The (minimum) zoomlevel is also limited. I've deactivated decelerating and you are able to bounce a bit out of the map (for better performance/ux). I added a ~1km grey border to the overlay so the user isnÄt able to see the orignal worldmap of google.

LimitedMapView.h:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <MapKit/MapKit.h>


@interface LimitedMapView : MKMapView <UIScrollViewDelegate>{

}

@property (nonatomic, assign) CLLocationCoordinate2D topLeftCoordinate;
@property (nonatomic, assign) CLLocationCoordinate2D bottomRightCoordinate;


@end

LimitedMapView.m:

#import "LimitedMapView.h"

@implementation LimitedMapView

@synthesize topLeftCoordinate, bottomRightCoordinate;

- (void)scrollViewDidZoom:(UIScrollView *)scrollView{

    if([super respondsToSelector:@selector(scrollViewDidZoom:)]) [super scrollViewDidZoom:scrollView];

    if ([self region].span.latitudeDelta > 0.002401f || [self region].span.longitudeDelta > 0.003433f) {

        CLLocationCoordinate2D center = self.centerCoordinate;
        MKCoordinateSpan span = MKCoordinateSpanMake(0.002401f, 0.003433f);

        self.region = MKCoordinateRegionMake(center, span);

    }

}

-(void)scrollViewDidEndDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView willDecelerate:(BOOL)decelerate{

    if([super respondsToSelector:@selector(scrollViewDidEndDragging:)]) [super scrollViewDidEndDragging:scrollView willDecelerate:decelerate];

    MKCoordinateRegion currentRegion = self.region;
    bool changeRegionLong = YES;
    bool changeRegionLat = YES;

    // LONGITUDE    
    if((currentRegion.center.longitude - (currentRegion.span.longitudeDelta/2)) < self.topLeftCoordinate.longitude) {

        currentRegion.center.longitude = (topLeftCoordinate.longitude + (currentRegion.span.longitudeDelta/2));

    } else if((currentRegion.center.longitude + (currentRegion.span.longitudeDelta/2)) > self.bottomRightCoordinate.longitude) {

        currentRegion.center.longitude = (bottomRightCoordinate.longitude - (currentRegion.span.longitudeDelta/2));

    } else {

        changeRegionLong = NO;

    }

    // LATITUDE    
    if((currentRegion.center.latitude + (currentRegion.span.latitudeDelta/2)) > self.topLeftCoordinate.latitude) {

        currentRegion.center.latitude = (topLeftCoordinate.latitude - (currentRegion.span.latitudeDelta/2));

    } else if((currentRegion.center.latitude - (currentRegion.span.latitudeDelta/2)) < self.bottomRightCoordinate.latitude) {

        currentRegion.center.latitude = (bottomRightCoordinate.latitude + (currentRegion.span.latitudeDelta/2));

    } else {

        changeRegionLat = NO;

    }

    if(changeRegionLong || changeRegionLat) [self setRegion:currentRegion animated:YES];

}

-(void)scrollViewWillBeginDecelerating:(UIScrollView *)scrollView{

    [scrollView setContentOffset:scrollView.contentOffset animated:YES];
}

@end

Answer 1

After trying different ways of limited MKMapView I've concluded that using mapDidChange, and resetting if you're center point goes outside of the boundaries works best, with animated: YES

Here's how I do it (Using the New Zealand lat/Long span/center).

- (void)mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView regionDidChangeAnimated:(BOOL)animated{ 
  if ((mapView.region.span.latitudeDelta > 15.589921 ) || (mapView.region.span.longitudeDelta > 175.836914) ) {
    CLLocationCoordinate2D centerCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(-41.162114, 172.836914);

    MKCoordinateSpan spanOfNZ = MKCoordinateSpanMake(13.589921, 14.062500 );

    MKCoordinateRegion NZRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMake(centerCoord, spanOfNZ);

    [mapView setRegion: NZRegion animated: YES];
  }

 if (abs(abs(mapView.region.center.latitude) - 41.162114) > (13.589921 / 2) ) {
    CLLocationCoordinate2D centerCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(-41.162114, 172.836914);

    MKCoordinateSpan spanOfNZ = MKCoordinateSpanMake(13.589921, 14.062500 );

    MKCoordinateRegion NZRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMake(centerCoord, spanOfNZ);

    [mapView setRegion: NZRegion animated: YES];

  }

  if (abs(abs(mapView.region.center.longitude) - 172.836914) > (14.062500 / 2) ) {
    CLLocationCoordinate2D centerCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(-41.162114, 172.836914);

     MKCoordinateSpan  spanOfNZ = MKCoordinateSpanMake(13.589921, 14.062500 );

     MKCoordinateRegion NZRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMake(centerCoord, spanOfNZ);

     [mapView setRegion: NZRegion animated: YES];
  }
}

Answer 2

By implementing :

-(void) mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView regionWillChangeAnimated:(BOOL)animated

You should be able to reset region to your specific one.

Look at that answer to have an example of how to do this.

---

Another solution, that brings more precise events but is more complex (I'm currently using this successfully for another need) is to subclass MKMapView and override UIScrollViewDelegate protocol.

If you do that, make sure to call super implementation like that :

- (void)scrollViewWillBeginDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {
  if ([super respondsToSelector:@selector(scrollViewWillBeginDragging:)])
    [super scrollViewWillBeginDragging:scrollView];
  // do what you want
}

Note: While the protocol is public, MKMapView implementation is unknown and might differ with iOS versions, so it is more safe to check with respondsToSelector: before. You must call super implementations or Map will just not work properly.