Store Locator Patterns Skill

Comprehensive patterns for building store locators, restaurant finders, and location-based search applications with Mapbox GL JS. Covers marker display, filtering, distance calculation, interactive lists, and directions integration.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when building applications that:

• Display multiple locations on a map (stores, restaurants, offices, etc.)
• Allow users to filter or search locations
• Calculate distances from user location
• Provide interactive lists synced with map markers
• Show location details in popups or side panels
• Integrate directions to selected locations

Dependencies

Required:

• Mapbox GL JS v3.x
• @turf/turf - For spatial calculations (distance, area, etc.)

Installation:

npm install mapbox-gl @turf/turf

Core Architecture

Pattern Overview

A typical store locator consists of:

1. Map Display - Shows all locations as markers
2. Location Data - GeoJSON with store/location information
3. Interactive List - Side panel listing all locations
4. Filtering - Search, category filters, distance filters
5. Detail View - Popup or panel with location details
6. User Location - Geolocation for distance calculation. For the blue dot location indicator, use the built-in mapboxgl.GeolocateControl — simpler than custom markers.
7. Directions - Route to selected location (optional)

Data Structure

GeoJSON format for locations:

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [-77.034084, 38.909671]
      },
      "properties": {
        "id": "store-001",
        "name": "Downtown Store",
        "address": "123 Main St, Washington, DC 20001",
        "phone": "(202) 555-0123",
        "hours": "Mon-Sat: 9am-9pm, Sun: 10am-6pm",
        "category": "retail",
        "website": "https://example.com/downtown"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Key properties:

• id - Unique identifier for each location
• name - Display name
• address - Full address for display and geocoding
• coordinates - [longitude, latitude] format
• category - For filtering (retail, restaurant, office, etc.)
• Custom properties as needed (hours, phone, website, etc.)

Basic Store Locator Implementation

Step 1: Initialize Map and Data

import mapboxgl from 'mapbox-gl';
import 'mapbox-gl/dist/mapbox-gl.css';

mapboxgl.accessToken = 'YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN';

// Store locations data
const stores = {
  type: 'FeatureCollection',
  features: [
    {
      type: 'Feature',
      geometry: {
        type: 'Point',
        coordinates: [-77.034084, 38.909671]
      },
      properties: {
        id: 'store-001',
        name: 'Downtown Store',
        address: '123 Main St, Washington, DC 20001',
        phone: '(202) 555-0123',
        category: 'retail'
      }
    }
    // ... more stores
  ]
};

const map = new mapboxgl.Map({
  container: 'map',
  style: 'mapbox://styles/mapbox/standard',
  center: [-77.034084, 38.909671],
  zoom: 11
});

Step 2: Add Markers to Map

Marker strategy by location count:

HTML Markers create one DOM element per point. Beyond ~100 locations the browser spends too much time on layout/paint. Symbol layers bypass the DOM entirely — the GPU draws all points in a single WebGL draw call.

Symbol Layer implementation (best for 100–1,000 locations). For HTML Markers (fewer than 100) or Clustering (more than 1,000), see references/markers.md.

map.on('load', () => {
  // Add store data as source
  map.addSource('stores', {
    type: 'geojson',
    data: stores
  });

  // Add custom marker image
  map.loadImage('/marker-icon.png', (error, image) => {
    if (error) throw error;
    map.addImage('custom-marker', image);

    // Add symbol layer
    map.addLayer({
      id: 'stores-layer',
      type: 'symbol',
      source: 'stores',
      layout: {
        'icon-image': 'custom-marker',
        'icon-size': 0.8,
        'icon-allow-overlap': true,
        'text-field': ['get', 'name'],
        'text-font': ['Open Sans Bold', 'Arial Unicode MS Bold'],
        'text-offset': [0, 1.5],
        'text-anchor': 'top',
        'text-size': 12
      }
    });
  });

  // Handle marker clicks using Interactions API (recommended)
  map.addInteraction('store-click', {
    type: 'click',
    target: { layerId: 'stores-layer' },
    handler: (e) => {
      const store = e.feature;
      flyToStore(store);
      createPopup(store);
    }
  });

  // Or using traditional event listener:
  // map.on('click', 'stores-layer', (e) => {
  //   const store = e.features[0];
  //   flyToStore(store);
  //   createPopup(store);
  // });

  // Change cursor on hover
  map.on('mouseenter', 'stores-layer', () => {
    map.getCanvas().style.cursor = 'pointer';
  })