Goal
You’ve placed a Map screen in your app, and now you want to shape how it behaves: whether nearby pins collapse into numbered clusters, whether a category filter bar runs across the top, and what happens when someone taps a pin. This article walks through the app settings behind all three.
This one’s settings-only, start to finish — everything here lives in Mobile App Manager, no code required. (If you’re a developer looking to suppress specific records from a map, the related hook articles at the end have you covered.)
Before you start
You need:
- MAM Main active. The Map content type and all map settings live in core.
- A source of map pins. Map pins come from your listing data — typically the MAM GeoDirectory plugin, which feeds listings (and optionally events) into the Map content type. A map with no listing data will render empty.
- A Map content type placed somewhere in your app — on the tab bar or in the left menu. The Map content type itself takes no per-button settings (“No settings required” in the content source form); its appearance and behavior are controlled entirely by the app settings below.
Note on placement vs. behavior. Adding a Map button to a tab bar or menu happens over in App Setup, the same way you’d place any other content type. This article is about what the map does once it’s placed, not how to place it — and these settings apply app-wide, to every Map screen you have.
Where these settings live
Almost all of these options live in one place: the Misc section of the app settings page. That single section holds the category, clustering, tap-behavior, marker-image, zoom, and tip options. A handful of core options (centering, the area-view circle) sit under a separate internal map grouping instead of misc — if one of them isn’t where you expect, check near the top of the page with the other map-related fields.
Can’t spot a setting by its on-screen label? Search the page for its setting key (variable) instead. The setting keys (variables) below are stable and are what actually ship in your app’s configuration, so they’re your most reliable way to track down any given option.
1. Clustering
Clustering collapses pins that are close together into a single numbered marker, so a busy map stays readable — as the user zooms in, clusters break apart into individual pins again.
| Setting (label) | Variable | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn Off Map Clustering? | map_turn_off_google_map_clustering |
Yes/No | Set to Yes to disable clustering entirely. Every listing then renders as its own individual pin at all zoom levels. Leave No (the default behavior) to keep clusters. |
| Hide Directions Option on Cluster Map? | map_cluster_hide_directions |
Yes/No | When a user opens a cluster, the app can offer a “Directions” action. Set to Yes to hide that option on clustered maps. |
When to turn clustering off. Clustering is the right call for most apps. Turn it off only when you’re working with a small, fixed set of pins — say, a handful of store locations — and you want every one visible at once, with no zooming required.
2. Categories
The category bar lets users filter map pins by category — showing only “Restaurants,” say, or only “Parks.” The categories themselves come from your listing taxonomy, via GeoDirectory; these settings just control whether that bar appears, and how.
| Setting (label) | Variable | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show map categories | map_show_categories |
Yes/No | Master switch for the category filter bar on the Map screen. Set to Yes to show it. |
| URL for All button on Map Categories | map_url_for_all_category |
Image | Image/icon used for the “All” entry in the category bar — the option that clears the filter and shows every pin. |
| Use Map Marker Images | use_map_marker_images |
Yes/No | When Yes, the map uses per-category marker images instead of the default pin, so different categories of listing are visually distinct on the map. |
A few related marker-image settings, also in the Misc section, let you override individual pins:
| Setting (label) | Variable | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Map Marker Pin URL | map_pin_url |
Text (URL) | The default pin image used for standard listings. |
| Favorite Listing Map Marker Pin URL | map_pin_favorite_url |
Text (URL) | Pin image used for a listing the user has favorited/checked in. |
| URL for Featured Pin | map_url_for_featured_pin |
Image | Pin image used for featured listings, so they stand out. |
Tip. “Show map categories” and “Use Map Marker Images” work independently of each other. You can turn on the category filter bar without category-specific marker art, or add marker art without the filter bar — though most apps that use one end up using both.
3. On-tap behavior
These settings control what the app does when a user taps a pin or a callout on the map.
| Setting (label) | Variable | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show Listing Header on Map when tapped? | map_show_listing_header |
Yes/No | When Yes, tapping a pin slides up a header card showing the listing’s name/summary, rather than jumping straight to the listing. |
| Show Checkin on Map Header when tapped? | map_show_listing_header_favorite |
Yes/No | Adds a check-in / favorite control to that tapped-pin header card. |
| Load Selected Screen on Map Callout Tap | map_load_vc_name_on_tap |
Text | Names the screen to open when the user taps the callout on a pin. This routes the tap to a specific content type / view rather than the default listing detail. The value is a screen identifier; leave it blank for the default listing-detail behavior. |
How the two header settings interact. map_show_listing_header decides whether a preview card shows up on tap at all. map_show_listing_header_favorite only comes into play once that card is showing — it adds the check-in control to it. Turn the header off, and the favorite/check-in option has nothing left to attach to.
Related options worth knowing
These settings aren’t about clustering, categories, or tap behavior directly, but they shape the same Map screen and tend to get set in the same sitting:
| Setting (label) | Variable | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map Name | map_title |
Text | The title shown on the Map screen / nav header. |
| Center map on the user? | center_map_on_user |
Yes/No | Opens the map centered on the user’s current location instead of a default region. |
| Initial Map Zoom (Default is 14) | default_map_zoom |
Text | The starting zoom level. Higher = closer in. |
| Show pin as area view circle? | map_show_area_view |
Yes/No | Renders a pin as a translucent area circle instead of a point. |
| Map Show Area View Color? | map_show_area_view_color |
Color | Fill color for the area-view circle above. |
| Show map Table List | map_show_table |
Yes/No | Shows a scrollable list of the mapped listings alongside the map. |
| Show map tip on first open? | map_show_tip |
Yes/No | Shows a one-time coaching tip the first time the map opens. |
| Map Tip Title / Map Tip Message | map_tip_title / map_tip_message |
Text | The heading and body of that first-open tip. |
Recommended starting configuration
For a typical directory-style app with many listings:
- Turn Off Map Clustering? → No (keep clusters)
- Show map categories → Yes
- Use Map Marker Images → Yes (if you have per-category art)
- Show Listing Header on Map when tapped? → Yes
- Center map on the user? → Yes
- Initial Map Zoom → leave at the default (14) and adjust if the first view feels too wide or too tight
For a small fixed-location app (a few stores or venues):
- Turn Off Map Clustering? → Yes (show every pin)
- Show map categories → No
- Show Listing Header on Map when tapped? → Yes
Verify it in the app
- Save your settings, then rebuild or refresh the app preview.
- Open the Map screen and zoom out until pins are packed close together — with clustering on, they should collapse into numbered clusters; zoom in and watch them split apart again.
- Turned on categories? Confirm the filter bar runs across the top, that tapping a category narrows down the pins, and that All brings them all back.
- Tap a pin and check that the on-tap behavior matches what you set — header card vs. jumping straight to the listing, with or without the check-in control.
Related articles
- Plugin: mam-geodirectory — the source of listings and categories that populate the map.
- Hook: mam_gd_events_exclude_from_map — for developers: keep
gd_eventposts off the map content type. - Place a Map on the tab bar or left menu — App Setup placement (companion how-to).
