[javascript] refresh leaflet map: map container is already initialized

I have a page where given a select to the user he can switch the leaflet map I show.

After a initial leaflet map load, my problem is when i want to refresh the map.

I always get "Map container is already initialized":

The problem line is:

var map = L.map('mapa').setView([lat, lon], 15);

Initially it loads well, but when I select another parameter in the form and want to display the map another time it crashes.

btw, I've tried to destroy and recreate $('#mapa') with jQuery before the second setView() but it shows the same error.

Try map.remove(); before you try to reload the map. This removes the previous map element using Leaflet's library (instead of jquery's).

For refreshing map in same page you can use below code to create a map on the page

if (!map) {
    this.map = new L.map("mapDiv", {
        center: [24.7136, 46.6753],
        zoom: 5,
        renderer: L.canvas(),
        attributionControl: true,
    });
}

then use below line to refresh the map, but make sure to use same latitude, longitude and zoom options

map.setView([24.7136, 46.6753], 5);  

Also, I had the same issue when switching between tabs in the same page using angular 2+, and I was able to fix it by adding below code in Component constructor

var container = L.DomUtil.get('mapDiv');
if (container != null) {
    container.outerHTML = ""; // Clear map generated HTML
    // container._leaflet_id = null; << didn't work for me
}

Before initializing map check for is the map is already initiated or not

var container = L.DomUtil.get('map');
      if(container != null){
        container._leaflet_id = null;
      }

We facing this issue today and we solved it. what we do ?

leaflet map load div is below.

<div id="map_container">
   <div id="listing_map" class="right_listing"></div>
</div>

When form input change or submit we follow this step below. after leaflet map container removed in my page and create new again.

$( '#map_container' ).html( ' ' ).append( '<div id="listing_map" class="right_listing"></div>' );

After this code my leaflet map is working fine with form filter to reload again.

Thank you.

What you can try is to remove the map before initialising it or when you leave the page:

if(this.map) {
  this.map.remove();
}

Only use this

map.invalidateSize();

https://github.com/Leaflet/Leaflet/issues/690

Before initializing map check for is the map is already initiated or not

var container = L.DomUtil.get('map');

if(container != null){

container._leaflet_id = null;

}

It works for me

If you don't globally store your map object reference, I recommend

if (L.DomUtil.get('map-canvas') !== undefined) { 
   L.DomUtil.get('map-canvas')._leaflet_id = null; 
}

where <div id="map-canvas"></div> is the object the map has been drawn into.

This way you avoid recreating the html element, which would happen, were you to remove() it.

well, after much seeking i realized it's well documented at http://leafletjs.com/examples/layers-control.html

i've ended not repainting the map, but print it once and repaint the points on each new ajax call, so the problem was how to clean up the old points and print only the new ones. i've ended doing this:

var point = L.marker([new_marker[0], new_marker[1]]).addTo(map).bindPopup('blah blah');
points.push(point); 
//points is a temporary array where i store the points for removing them afterwards

so, at each new ajax call, before painting the new points, i do the following:

for (i=0;i<points.length;i++) {
  map.removeLayer(points[i]);
}
points=[];

so far, so good :-)

if you want update map view, for example change map center, you don’t have to delete and then recreate the map, you can just update coordinate

const mapInit = () => {
 let map.current = w.L.map('map');

 L.tileLayer('http://{s}.tile.osm.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png', {
    attribution: '&copy; <a href="http://osm.org/copyright" target="_blank">OpenStreetMap</a> contributors'
 }).addTo(map.current);
}

const setCoordinate = (gps_lat, gps_long) => {
  map.setView([gps_lat, gps_long], 13);
}

initMap();

setCoordinate(50.403723 30.623538);

setTimeout(() => {
  setCoordinate(51.505, -0.09);
}, 3000);

I had the same problem on angular when switching page. I had to add this code before leaving the page to make it works:

    $scope.$on('$locationChangeStart', function( event ) {
    if(map != undefined)
    {
      map.remove();
      map = undefined
      document.getElementById('mapLayer').innerHTML = "";
    }
});

Without document.getElementById('mapLayer').innerHTML = "" the map was not displayed on the next page.

For refresh leaflet map you can use this code:

this.map.fitBounds(this.map.getBounds());

use the redrawAll() function rather than renderAll().

the best way

map.off();
map.remove();

You should add map.off(), it also works faster, and does not cause problems with the events

When you just remove a map, it destroys the div id reference, so, after remove() you need to build again the div where the map will be displayed, in order to avoid the "Uncaught Error: Map container not found".

if(map != undefined || map != null){
    map.remove();
   $("#map").html("");
   $("#preMap").empty();
   $( "<div id=\"map\" style=\"height: 500px;\"></div>" ).appendTo("#preMap");
}

I had same problem.then i set globally map variable e.g var map= null and then for display map i check

if(map==null)then map=new L.Map('idopenstreet').setView();

By this solution your map will be initialize only first time after that map will be fill by L.Map then it will not be null. so no error will be there like map container already initialize.