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What's the difference between MKAnnotation and MKMapItem?

Which one to use when I want to display some interesting places on my map?
I have a list of objects that have latitude, longitude, title, description and photo so far and I'd like to have them on my map.

Kamil Lelonek
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2 Answers2

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MKAnnotation is a MARKER meant for displaying stuff using a MKAnnotationView

so the procedure is:

  1. add a MKAnnotation to let the map know that there is an entry
  2. wait for the map's delegate call viewForAnnotation
  3. set up a annotationView there that is to be shown

a good tutorial (IMO) that shows this with detailed code is at: http://www.codigator.com/tutorials/mapkit-tutorial-for-ios-beginners/

MKMapItem is only for the openMapWithItem api that opens the external app!

EDIT: MKMapItem has a placemark property which is a MKAnnotation - so if that's non-nil you can add it. (note that it might be nil)

Daij-Djan
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  • +1 to you for being more just as fast and even more detailed than me. – Michael Dautermann Mar 01 '14 at 09:45
  • It's important to point out that `MKAnnotation` is a _protocol_ while `MKMapItem` is a class (that doesn't implement that protocol). So step 1 should say "add an object that implements the MKAnnotation protocol to let...". The map view wants model objects that implement that protocol. Their _view_ is a separate thing. –  Mar 01 '14 at 14:08
  • "MKMapItem" has an attribute "placemark" that is of the type "MKPlacemark" which does implement "MKAnnotation" so you can add that to a map – echappy Jun 30 '15 at 17:45
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MKAnnotation is a protocol, used to provide annotation-related information to a map view.

I think what you really meant to refer to was a MKAnnotationView, which is used to "present annotations visually in a map view".

A MKMapItem "encapsulates information about a specific point on a map. This information includes the map location and any other data that might be relevant, such as the name of a business at that location. Apps use this class to share map-related data with the Maps app."

If you want to show annotations for a specific point on your map, I suspect what you want to do is use a MKAnnotationView.

Michael Dautermann
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