Dropdowns

Dropdowns are toggleable, contextual overlays for displaying lists of links and actions in a dropdown menu format.

<b-dropdown> (or known by its shorter alias of <b-dd>) components are toggleable, contextual overlays for displaying lists of links and more. They’re toggled by clicking (or pressing space or enter when focused), not by hovering; this is an intentional design decision.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown1" text="Dropdown Button" class="m-md-2">
    <b-dropdown-item>First Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item>Second Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item>Third Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-divider></b-dropdown-divider>
    <b-dropdown-item>Something else here...</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item disabled>Disabled action</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown.vue -->

The following components can be placed inside of your dropdowns. Using any other component or markup may break layout and/or keyboard navigation.

Sub-component Description Aliases
<b-dropdown-item> Action items that provide click, link, and <router-link> functionality. Renders as an <a> element by default. <b-dd-item>
<b-dropdown-item-button> An alternative to <b-dropdown-item> that renders a menu item using a <button> element. <b-dropdown-item-btn>, <b-dd-item-button>, <b-dd-item-btn>
<b-dropdown-header> A header item, used to help identify a group of dropdown items. <b-dd-header>
<b-dropdown-divider> A divider / spacer which can be used to separate dropdown items. <b-dd-divider>

Note: Nested sub-menus are not supported.

<b-dropdown-item>

The <b-dropdown-item> is typically used to create a navigation link inside your menu. Use either the href prop or the to prop (for router link support) to generate the appropriate navigation link. If neither href nor to are provided, a standard <a> link will be generated with an href of # (with an event handler that will prevent scroll to top behaviour by preventing the default link action).

Disabled the dropdown item by setting the disabled prop.

<b-dropdown-item-button>

Historically dropdown menu contents had to be links (<b-dropdown-item>), but that’s no longer the case with Bootstrap v4. Now you can optionally create <button> elements in your dropdowns by using the <b-dropdown-item-button> sub-component. <b-dropdown-itmem-button> does not support the href or to props.

Disabled the dropdown item button by setting the disabled prop.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-buttons" text="Dropdown using buttons as menu items" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>I'm a button</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>I'm also a button</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button disabled>I'm a button, but disabled!</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>I don't look like a button, but I am!</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-item-buttons.vue -->

When the menu item doesn't trigger navigation, it is recommended to use the <b-dropdown-item-button> sub-component.

<b-dropdown-item-divider>

Separate groups of related menu items with <b-dropdown-divider>.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-divider" text="Dropdown with divider" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>First item</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Second item</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-divider></b-dropdown-divider>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Separated Item</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-item-divider.vue -->

<b-dropdown-item-header>

Add a header to label sections of actions in any dropdown menu.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-header" text="Dropdown with header" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-header>Dropdown header</b-dropdown-header>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>First item</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Second Item</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-item-header.vue -->

See Section Dropdown headers and accessibility for details on making headers more accessible for users of assistive technologies.

Positioning

Dropdown supports various positioning such as left and right aligned, drodown and dropup, and supports auto-flipping (dropdown to dropup, and vice-versa) when the menu would overflow off of the visible screen area.

The dropdown menu can either be left aligned (default) or right aligned with respect to the button above it. To have the dropdown aligned on the right, set the right prop.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-left" text="Left align" variant="primary" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-right" right text="Right align" variant="primary" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-right.vue -->

Dropup

Turn your dropdown menu into a drop-up menu by setting the dropup prop.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-dropup" dropup text="Drop-Up" variant="info" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-dropup.vue -->

Auto "flipping"

By default, dropdowns may flip to the top, or to the bottom, based on their current position in the viewport. To disable this auto-flip feature, set the no-flip prop.

Like to move your menu away from the toggle buttons a bit? Then use the offset prop to specify the number of pixels to push right (or left when negative) from the toggle button:

  • Specified as a number of pixels: positive for right shift, negative for left shift.
  • Specify the distance in CSS units (i.e. 0.3rem, 4px, 1.2em, etc) passed as a string.
<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-offset" offset="25" text="Offset Dropdown" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-offset.vue -->

Boundary constraint

By default, dropdowns are visually constrained to its scroll parent, which will suffice in most situations. However, if you place a dropdown inside an element that has overflow: scroll (or similar) set, the dropdown menu may - in some situations - get cut off. To get around this, you can specify a boundary element via the boundary prop. Supported values are 'scrollParent' (the default), 'viewport', 'window' or a reference to an HTML element. The boundary value is passed directly to Popper.js's boundariesElement configuration option.

Note: when boundary is any value other than the default of 'scrollParent', the style position: static is applied to to the dropdown component's root element in order to allow the menu to "break-out" of its scroll container. In some situations this may affect your layout or positioning of the dropdown trigger button. In these cases you may need to wrap your dropdown inside another element.

Split button support

Create a split dropdown button, where the left button provides standard click event support, while the right hand side is the dropdown menu toggle button.

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-split" split text="Split Dropdown" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here...</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-split.vue -->

Sizing

Dropdowns work with trigger buttons of all sizes, including default and split dropdown buttons.

Set the size prop to either sm for small button(s), or lg for large button(s).

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-lg" size="lg" text="Large" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Another action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Something else here</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-lg-split" size="lg" split text="Large Split" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Another action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Something else here...</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
  <br>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-sm" size="sm" text="Small" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Another action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Something else here...</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-sm-split" size="sm" split text="Small Split" class="m-2">
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Another action</b-dropdown-item-button>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Something else here...</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-sizes.vue -->

Note: changing the size of the button(s) does not affect the size of the menu items!

The dropdown trigger buttons can have one of the standard Bootstrap contextual variants applied by setting the prop variant to success, primary, info, danger, link etc.

See the Variant Reference for a list of supported contextual variants.

You can also apply abritrary classes to the toggle button via the toggle-class prop. This prop accepts either a string or array of strings.

Hidden Caret

The dropdown can be created with the caret hidden by setting the no-caret prop to true. This is useful when the dropdown is to be displayed as an icon.

<div>
  <b-dropdown variant="link" size="lg" no-caret>
    <template slot="button-content">
      &#x1f50d;<span class="sr-only">Search</span>
    </template>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Another action</b-dropdown-item>
    <b-dropdown-item href="#">Something else here...</b-dropdown-item>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-hidden-caret.vue -->

Notes:

  • The caret will always be shown when using split mode.
  • Hidden caret works by removing the .dropdown-toggle class from the dropdown trigger button. This may cause styling and/or functionality issues in certain situations where the .dropdown-toggle class is required. Your mileage may vary.

Accessibility

Providing a unique id prop ensures ARIA compliance by automatically adding the appropriate aria-* attributes in the rendered markup.

The default ARIA role is set to menu, but you can change this default to another role (such as navigation) via the role prop, depending on your user case.

When a menu item doesn't trigger navigation, it is recommended to use the <b-dropdown-item-button> sub-component (which is not announced as a link) instead of <b-dropdown-item> (which is presented as a link to the user).

When using <b-dropdown-header> components in the dropdown menu, it is recommended to add an id attribute to each of the headers, and then set the aria-describedby attribute (set to the id value of the associated header) on each following dropdown items under that header. To improve on this, wrap the header and related menu items in a <div> with role="group". This will provide users of assistive technologies (i.e. sight-impaired users) additional context about the dropdown item:

<div>
  <b-dropdown id="ddown-aria" text="Dropdown ARIA" variant="primary" class="m-2">
    <div role="group" aria-lableledby="header1">
      <b-dropdown-header id="header1">Groups</b-dropdown-header>
      <b-dropdown-item-button aria-describedby="header1">Add</b-dropdown-item-button>
      <b-dropdown-item-button aria-describedby="header1">Delete</b-dropdown-item-button>
    </div>
    <div role="group" aria-lableledby="header2">
      <b-dropdown-header id="header2">Users</b-dropdown-header>
      <b-dropdown-item-button aria-describedby="header2">Add</b-dropdown-item-button>
      <b-dropdown-item-button aria-describedby="header2">Delete</b-dropdown-item-button>
    </div>
    <b-dropdown-divider></b-dropdown-divider>
    <b-dropdown-item-button>Something <strong>not</strong> associated with user</b-dropdown-item-button>
  </b-dropdown>
</div>

<!-- dropdown-aria.vue -->

Dropdowns support keyboard navigation, emulating native <select> behaviour.

Keypress Action
DOWN Will highlight the next lower non-disabled item in the menu.
UP Will highlight the next higher non-disabled item in the menu.
ENTER or SPACE Will click the highlighted menu item.
ESC Will close the dropdown and return focus to the trigger button.
TAB Will close the dropdown and jump to the next focusable control on the page.
SHIFT+TAB Will close the dropdown and jump to the previous focusable control on the page.
  • <b-dropdown> can be used via it's shorter alias of <b-dd>
  • <b-dropdown-item> can be used via it's shorter alias of <b-dd-item>
  • <b-dropdown-item-button> can be used by the shorter aliases <b-dropdown-item-btn>, <b-dd-item-button> and <b-dd-item-btn>
  • <b-dropdown-header> can be used via it's shorter alias of <b-dd-header>
  • <b-dropdown-divider> can be used via it's shorter alias of <b-dd-divider>

Implementation Note

On touch-enabled devices, opening a <b-dropdown> adds empty (noop) mouseover handlers to the immediate children of the <body> element. This admittedly ugly hack is necessary to work around a quirk in iOS’ event delegation, which would otherwise prevent a tap anywhere outside of the dropdown from triggering the code that closes the dropdown. Once the dropdown is closed, these additional empty mouseover handlers are removed.

Component Reference

<b-dropdown>

Properties

PropertyTypeDefault Value
idString
disabledBooleanfalse
textString
dropupBooleanfalse
rightBooleanfalse
offsetNumber or String0
no-flipBooleanfalse
popper-optsObject
splitBooleanfalse
toggle-textStringToggle Dropdown
sizeString
variantString
toggle-classString or Array
no-caretBooleanfalse
roleStringmenu
boundaryString or ObjectscrollParent

Slots

SlotDescription
button-contentCan be used to implement custom text with icons and more styling
textDeprecated. please use 'button-content' slot instead.

Events

EventArgumentsDescription
shownEmitted When dropdown is shown
hiddenEmitted When dropdown is hidden
clickEmitted when split button clicked in split mode.
Trying to get native browser events working on your component? Use the .native modifier to capture browser native events such as: @click.native="...", @mouseover.native="...", etc. See the the official Vue.js documentation for more information.

<b-dropdown-item>

Properties

PropertyTypeDefault Value
hrefString
relString
targetString_self
activeBooleanfalse
active-classStringactive
appendBooleanfalse
disabledBooleanfalse
eventString or Arrayclick
exactBooleanfalse
exact-active-classStringactive
replaceBooleanfalse
router-tagStringa
toString or Object

<b-dropdown-item-button>

Properties

PropertyTypeDefault Value
disabledBooleanfalse

<b-dropdown-header>

Properties

PropertyTypeDefault Value
idString
tagStringh6

<b-dropdown-divider>

Properties

PropertyTypeDefault Value
tagStringdiv

Importing Individual Components

ComponentImport Path
<b-dropdown>bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown
<b-dropdown-item>bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown-item
<b-dropdown-item-button>bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown-item-button
<b-dropdown-header>bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown-header
<b-dropdown-divider>bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown-divider

Example:

import bDropdown from 'bootstrap-vue/es/components/dropdown/dropdown';
Vue.component('b-dropdown', bDropdown);

Importing Dropdown as a Vue plugin

This plugin includes all of the above listed individual components. Plugins also include any component aliases.

import { Dropdown } from 'bootstrap-vue/es/components';
Vue.use(Dropdown);