With OpenLayers, what is the correct way of removing a markers layer, and the popups?

Question

LoadPin is a function to add a marker to a map. It initializes the layer on the first call. map is an openlayers map object.

But using map.removeLayer("markers") or "Markers", does not remove the markers from the map. I saw a mention of a destroy operation to do this but cant find that.

AND, how do I remove the popups?

var markers = null
function LoadPin(LL, name, description) {
    var size = new OpenLayers.Size(36, 47);
    var offset = new OpenLayers.Pixel(-(size.w / 2), -size.h);
    var icon = new OpenLayers.Icon('http://www.waze.co.il/images/home.png', size, offset);

    if (markers == null) {
        markers = new OpenLayers.Layer.Markers("Markers");
        map.addLayer(markers);
    }

    var marker = new OpenLayers.Marker(LL, icon)
    markers.addMarker(marker);
    var bounds = markers.getDataExtent();
    map.zoomToExtent(bounds);

    map.addPopup(new OpenLayers.Popup.FramedCloud("test", LL, null,
                "<div style='font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8em;'>" + name + "<br>" + description + "</div>",
                anchor = null, true, null));
}

Answer 1

You can remove individual markers from a marker layer with:

markers.removeMarker(marker);

Removing the entire layer, with markers should be achieved with:

markers.destroy();

You should be able to remove a popup with:

map.removePopup(popup);

where popup is the Popup object created earlier.