OpenLayers and the legend

Question

Is it a possibility in OL to add a legend (symbology) directly to (under) particular layer (not only switch on/off the layer)?

Answer 1

This functionality is not available in OpenLayers trunk. Other toolkits -- such as GeoExt -- or other extended functionality -- as demonstrated in the previously-linked sandbox -- may provide this functionality, but none are available in the stock/base OpenLayers install.

Answer 2

Assume in the Legend [Table of Contents/Layers] you still want to show map layers with on/off switch but with the symbology of each under each one.

Such as:

http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/jvanulden/openlayers/examples/extended-layerswitcher.html

View Source reveals that it is using Web Map Context (WMC)

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wmc

var format = new OpenLayers.Format.WMC({'layerOptions': 
layerOptions});

var xmlParser = new OpenLayers.Format.XML()

(XML is 'hidWMC' at bottom of source code)

Legend
 // add the LayerSwitcher (a.k.a. Map Legend)
                layerSwitcher = new OpenLayers.Control.LayerSwitcher();
                layerSwitcher.ascending = false;
                layerSwitcher.useLegendGraphics = true;

                map.addControl(layerSwitcher);

Try recreating the example then change for your requirements (content)