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Getting Started

Get started with BootstrapVue, based on the world's most popular framework - Bootstrap v4, for building responsive, mobile-first sites using Vue.js.

  • Vue.js v2.5 is required, v2.6.10 is recommended
  • Bootstrap v4.3 is required, v4.3.1 is recommended
  • PortalVue v2.1 is required by Toasts, v2.1.6 is recommended
  • jQuery is not required

Check out what is new in BootstrapVue release v2.0.0-rc.28.

Prerequisites

Before getting started with BootstrapVue, you should have general familiarity with Vue functionality and Bootstrap v4.3 CSS. If you are unfamiliar with Vue and/or Bootstrap, some good starting points would be:

Documentation information

In many of the examples shown in BootstrapVue's documentation, you may see the use of CSS classes such as ml-2, py-1, etc. These are Bootstrap v4.3 utility classes that help control padding, margins, positioning and more. You can find information on these classes in the Utility Classes reference section.

Many of the examples in this documentation are live and can be edited in-place for an enhanced learning experience.

BootstrapVue also provides an interactive playground where you can experiment with the various components and export your results to JSFiddle, CodePen, and/or CodeSandbox.

Important HTML globals

Bootstrap v4 CSS employs a handful of important global styles and settings that you'll need to be aware of when using it, all of which are almost exclusively geared towards the normalization of cross browser styles. Refer to the following sub-sections for details.

HTML5 doctype

Bootstrap requires the use of the HTML5 doctype. Without it, you may see some funky incomplete styling, but including it shouldn't cause any considerable hiccups.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  ...
</html>

Responsive meta tag

Bootstrap is developed for mobile first, a strategy in which code is optimized for mobile devices first and then scales up components as necessary using CSS media queries. To ensure proper rendering and touch zooming for all devices, add the responsive viewport meta tag to your <head>.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">

CSS box-sizing

For more straightforward sizing in CSS, the global box-sizing value is switched from content-box to border-box. This ensures padding does not affect the final computed width of an element, but it can cause problems with some third party software like Google Maps and Google Custom Search Engine.

On the rare occasion you need to override it, use something like the following:

.selector-for-some-widget {
  box-sizing: content-box;
}

With the above snippet, nested elements — including generated content via ::before and ::after — will all inherit the specified box-sizing for that .selector-for-some-widget.

Learn more about box model and sizing at CSS Tricks.

Style reboot

For improved cross-browser rendering, Bootstrap v4.3 uses Reboot to correct inconsistencies across browsers and devices while providing slightly more opinionated resets to common HTML elements.

Using module bundlers

If you are using module bundlers like webpack, rollup.js, etc, you may prefer to directly include the package into your project. To get started, use yarn or npm to get the latest version of Vue.js, BootstrapVue and Bootstrap v4:

# With npm
npm install vue bootstrap-vue bootstrap

# With yarn
yarn add vue bootstrap-vue bootstrap

Then, register BootstrapVue plugin in your app entry point:

// app.js
import Vue from 'vue'
import BootstrapVue from 'bootstrap-vue'

Vue.use(BootstrapVue)

And import Bootstrap and BootstrapVue css files:

// app.js
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css'
import 'bootstrap-vue/dist/bootstrap-vue.css'

Or import Bootstrap and BootstrapVue scss files via a single custom SCSS file:

// custom.scss
@import 'node_modules/bootstrap/scss/bootstrap';
@import 'node_modules/bootstrap-vue/src/index.scss';
// app.js
import 'custom.scss'

Be sure to @import or define your custom variable values before including Bootstrap SCSS (bootstrap.scss), and include BootstrapVue SCSS (bootstrap-vue.scss) after that to ensure variables are set up correctly.

Place all of the SCSS @imports into a single SCSS file, and import that single file into your project. Importing individual SCSS files into your project will not share variable values and functions between files by default.

Note: Requires webpack configuration to load CSS/SCSS files (official guide).

For information on theming Bootstrap, check out the Theming reference section.

Aliasing Vue import

BootstrapVue and PortalVue require access to the global Vue reference (via import Vue from 'vue').

If you are using a specific build of Vue (i.e. runtime-only vs. compiler + runtime), you will need to set up an alias to 'vue' in your bundler config to ensure that your project, BootstrapVue and PortalVue are all using the same build version of Vue. If you are seeing an error such as "$attr and $listeners is readonly", or "Multiple instances of Vue detected", then you will need to set up an alias.

Example: Vue alias in webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      // If using the runtime only build
      vue$: 'vue/dist/vue.runtime.esm.js' // 'vue/dist/vue.runtime.common.js' for webpack 1
      // Or if using full build of Vue (runtime + compiler)
      // vue$: 'vue/dist/vue.esm.js'      // 'vue/dist/vue.common.js' for webpack 1
    }
  }
}

Note: If your project has multiple webpack config files (i.e. webpack.config.js, webpack.renderer.config.js, webpack.vendor.config.js, webpack.server.config.js, webpack.client.config.js, etc), you will need to set the appropriate alias in all of them.

See the Vue.js Guide for full details on setting up aliases for webpack, rollup.js, Parcel, etc.

Tree shaking with module bundlers

SIMPLIFIED in 2.0.0-rc.20

When using a module bundler you can optionally import only specific components groups (plugins), components and/or directives.

Note: Optimal tree shaking only works when webpack 4 is in production mode and javascript minification is enabled.

Component groups and directives as Vue plugins

CHANGED in 2.0.0-rc.22

You can import component groups and directives as Vue plugins by importing from the bootstrap-vue:

// This imports all the layout components such as <b-container>, <b-row>, <b-col>:
import { LayoutPlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(LayoutPlugin)

// This imports <b-modal> as well as the v-b-modal directive as a plugin:
import { ModalPlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(ModalPlugin)

// This imports <b-card> along with all the <b-card-*> sub-components as a plugin:
import { CardPlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(CardPlugin)

// This imports directive v-b-scrollspy as a plugin:
import { VBScrollspyPlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(VBScrollspyPlugin)

// This imports the dropdown and table plugins
import { DropdownPlugin, TablePlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(DropdownPlugin)
Vue.use(TablePlugin)

When importing as plugins, all subcomponents and related directives are imported in most cases. i.e. When importing <b-nav>, all the <nav-*> sub components are also included, as well all dropdown sub components. Component shorthand aliases (if any) are also included in the plugin. Refer to the component and directive documentation for details.

There are two additional helper plugins for providing the $bvModal and $bvToast injections (if you are not using the ModalPlugin or ToastPlugin plugins) which are available for import from 'bootstrap-vue':

  • BVModalPlugin - provides the injection $bvModal for generating message boxes.
  • BVToastPlugin - provides the injection $bvToast for generating on demand toasts.

When importing multiple component group and/or directive group plugins, include all imports in a single import statement for optimal tree shaking.

Individual components and directives

CHANGED in 2.0.0-rc.22

If you would like to only pull in a specific component or set of components, you can do this by directly importing those components.

To cherry pick a component/directive, start by importing it in the file where it is being used:

// Place all imports from 'bootstrap-vue' in a single import
// statement for optimal bundle sizes
import { BModal, VBModal } from 'bootstrap-vue'

Then add it to your component definition:

Vue.component('my-component', {
  components: {
    'b-modal': BModal
  },
  directives: {
    // Note that Vue automatically prefixes directive names with `v-`
    'b-modal': VBModal
  }
  // ...
})

Or register them globally:

Vue.component('b-modal', BModal)
// Note that Vue automatically prefixes directive names with `v-`
Vue.directive('b-modal', VBModal)

Vue allows for various component and directive name syntaxes here, so feel free to utilize kebab-casing (shown), camelCasing, PascalCasing, and/or object property shorthand (components only).

Using BootstrapVue source code for smaller bundles

For advanced users

When using module bundlers, they will usually default to using the esm/ modular build, which has been pre-transpiled by Babel for our supported browsers.

You can override the use of the esm/ build by aliasing 'bootstrap-vue' to use the BootstrapVue source files, and whitelisting node_modules/bootstrap-vue/src/* for transpilation by your build process, in your module bundler config. This will allow you to transpile BootstrapVue for your target browsers/environments and potentially reduce bundle sizes (and will only include the babel helper utils once) at the expense of slightly longer build times.

Example webpack.config.js for Babel transpilation:

module.exports = {
  resolve: {
    alias: {
      // Alias for using source of BootstrapVue
      'bootstrap-vue$': 'bootstrap-vue/src/index.js'
    }
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        // Exclude transpiling `node_modules`, except `bootstrap-vue/src`
        exclude: /node_modules\/(?!bootstrap-vue\/src\/)/,
        use: {
          loader: 'babel-loader',
          options: {
            presets: ['env']
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

You may need to install babel-core, babel-loader, and babel-preset-env:

# If using npm
npm install babel-core babel-loader babel-preset-env --save-dev

# If using yarn
yarn add babel-core babel-loader babel-preset-env --dev

For more details see:

Nuxt.js module

BootstrapVue provides a Nuxt.js module for easily importing BootstrapVue (or portions of BootstrapVue) into your Nuxt.js app.

Getting started with Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js version 2.8.1 (or greater) is recommended.

Install dependencies:

# With npm
npm install bootstrap-vue

# With yarn
yarn add bootstrap-vue

Add bootstrap-vue/nuxt to modules section of your nuxt.config.js file.

This will include both boostrap.css and bootstrap-vue.css default pre-compiled CSS.

module.exports = {
  modules: ['bootstrap-vue/nuxt']
}

Using custom Bootstrap SCSS

If you are using custom Bootstrap SCSS, you can disable automatic inclusion of Bootstrap and BootstrapVue pre-compiled CSS files by setting the following option(s) to false:

module.exports = {
  modules: ['bootstrap-vue/nuxt'],
  bootstrapVue: {
    bootstrapCSS: false, // Or `css: false`
    bootstrapVueCSS: false // Or `bvCSS: false`
  }
}

BootstrapVue's custom SCSS relies on Bootstrap SCSS variables and mixins, and any variable overrides you may have set. You can include Bootstrap and BootstrapVue SCSS in your project's custom SCSS file:

// custom.scss

// Custom Bootstrap variable overrides go first
$grid-breakpoints: (
  xs: 0,
  sm: 480px,
  md: 640px,
  lg: 992px,
  xl: 1300px
);
$enable-rounded: false;

// Then include the following
@import 'bootstrap/scss/bootstrap.scss';
@import 'bootstrap-vue/src/index.scss';

// And define any of your custom or additional CSS/SCSS here,
// or via an @import

In your app main entry point include the single custom SCSS file (when using sass-loader):

// app.js
import 'custom.scss'

transformAssetUrls with Nuxt.js

NEW in v2.0.0-rc.22 The BootstrapVue Nuxt plugin module will automatically add in the BootstrapVue specific transformAssetUrls image src prop configuration for you.

Tree shaking with Nuxt.js

ENHANCED in 2.0.0-rc.20

If you wish to reduce your production bundle size because you only use a subset of the available BootstrapVue plugins, you can configure the list of BootstrapVue componentPlugins or directivePlugins you want to globally install in your Nuxt.js project.

module.exports = {
  modules: ['bootstrap-vue/nuxt'],
  bootstrapVue: {
    componentPlugins: [
      'LayoutPlugin',
      'FormPlugin',
      'FormCheckboxPlugin',
      'FormInputPlugin',
      'FormRadioPlugin',
      'ToastPlugin',
      'ModalPlugin'
    ],
    directivePlugins: ['VBPopoverPlugin', 'VBTooltipPlugin', 'VBScrollspyPlugin']
  }
}

NEW in 2.0.0-rc.20 There are two additional helper plugins for providing the $bvModal and $bvToast injections (if you are not using the ModalPlugin or ToastPlugin plugins) that are available in the componentPlugins option:

  • BVModalPlugin - provides the injection $bvModal for generating message boxes.
  • BVToastPlugin - provides the injection $bvToast for generating on demand toasts.

NEW in 2.0.0-rc.20 You can also optionally import individual components and/or directives, by configuring the list of BootstrapVue components or directives you want to globally install in your Nuxt.js project.

module.exports = {
  modules: ['bootstrap-vue/nuxt'],
  bootstrapVue: {
    components: ['BContainer', 'BRow', 'BCol', 'BFormInput', 'BButton', 'BTable', 'BModal'],
    directives: ['VBModal', 'VBPopover', 'VBTooltip', 'VBScrollspy']
  }
}

Feel free to mix and match plugin imports with individual component and directive imports.

Refer to the reference section at the bottom of each of the component and directive docs for details on the plugin names available (and which components and directives are included in each plugin) and component and/or directive import names.

Note that when importing individual components, any component aliases will not be available.

Note: Optimal tree shaking only works when your Nuxt.js app is in production mode. You may notice larger bundle sizes when not in production mode (i.e. dev mode).

Do not use the Nuxt module If you want to import individual BootstrapVue components into specific pages and/or components of your Nuxt app. Instead follow the module bundlers section above as well as the Tree shaking with module bundlers section above.

Passing custom BootstrapVue config with Nuxt.js

If you need to pass a custom BootstrapVue configuration, you may do so by setting the config property in your nuxt.config.js:

module.exports = {
  modules: ['bootstrap-vue/nuxt'],
  bootstrapVue: {
    config: {
      // Custom config options here
    }
  }
}

Using pretranspiled version of BootstrapVue for Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js module uses the pre-transpiled versions of BootstrapVue for faster development builds and the source (src/) of BootstrapVue for higher quality and smaller production builds.

You can override this option using usePretranspiled option. Setting to true always uses the pre-transpiled versions, while setting it to false will always use src/. By default usePretranspiled is enabled in development mode only. You should not need to use this option as the default is most optimal for performance.

Vue CLI 2

DEPRECATED Use Vue CLI 3 instead.

BootstrapVue has two Vue CLI templates available:

  • webpack-simple: Quick scaffold for a proof of concept or small app
  • webpack: Larger, production ready template with more options
# Ensure Vue CLI is installed and up to date
npm install -g vue-cli

# Initialize a BootstrapVue project in the directory 'my-project'
vue init bootstrap-vue/webpack-simple my-project

# Change into the directory
cd my-project

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Fire up the dev server with HMR
npm run dev

You can repeat the commands above replacing bootstrap-vue/webpack-simple with bootstrap-vue/webpack for the webpack template.

Vue CLI 3

Unlike V2, Vue CLI 3 doesn't use templates.

Create a new project in the directory my-project:

npx @vue/cli create my-project

Enter the my-project directory and install bootstrap-vue:

npm install bootstrap-vue

Under the hood, Vue CLI uses webpack, so we can register the BootstrapVue plugin as with the webpack instructions.

import Vue from 'vue'
import BootstrapVue from 'bootstrap-vue'

import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css'
import 'bootstrap-vue/dist/bootstrap-vue.css'

Vue.use(BootstrapVue)

For additional configuration for Vue CLI 3 for using project relative paths for image src props on various BootstrapVue components, refer to the Vue CLI 3 section of the Image Src Resolving reference page.

Vue CLI 3 plugin

As an alternative, you can use the Bootstrap-Vue Vue CLI 3 plugin to help you configure your app.

vue create my-app
cd my-app
vue add bootstrap-vue

This will create a new app with basic BootstrapVue settings to get your project started.

In the future this plugin will provide options for more advanced configurations and templates.

Browser

If not using a module bundler or compile process, you can instead add the Boostrap and BootstrapVue CSS URLs in your HTML <head> section, followed by the required JavaScript files.

When supporting older browsers (see Browser Support below), you will need to include a polyfill for handling modern JavaScript features before loading Vue and BoostrapVue JavaScript files.

<!-- Add this to <head> -->

<!-- Load required Bootstrap and BootstrapVue CSS -->
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="//unpkg.com/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" />
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="//unpkg.com/bootstrap-vue@latest/dist/bootstrap-vue.min.css" />

<!-- Load polyfills to support older browsers -->
<script src="//polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js?features=es2015%2CIntersectionObserver" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

<!-- Load Vue followed by BootstrapVue -->
<script src="//unpkg.com/vue@latest/dist/vue.min.js"></script>
<script src="//unpkg.com/bootstrap-vue@latest/dist/bootstrap-vue.min.js"></script>

Build variants

Choosing the best variant for your build environment / packager helps reduce bundle sizes. If your bundler supports esm modules, it will automatically prefer it over commonjs.

Variant Environments Package path
ESM module webpack 2+ / rollup.js esm/index.js
ESM bundle webpack 2+ / rollup.js dist/bootstrap-vue.esm.js
commonjs2 webpack 1 / ... dist/bootstrap-vue.common.js or dist/bootstrap-vue.common.min.js
UMD Browser dist/bootstrap-vue.js or dist/bootstrap-vue.min.js

All of the build variants listed above have been pre-transpiled targeting the browsers supported by BootstrapVue. However, if you are targeting only modern browsers, you may want to import BootstrapVue from src/index.js, (by aliasing bootstrap-vue to bootstrap-vue/src/index.js) and whitelisting bootstrap-vue/src for transpilation via your own project. This can potentially reduce final project bundle sizes. See the Using BootstrapVue source code for smaller bundles section above for more details.

Both the ESM module and ESM bundle (single file) are tree-shakeable, but you will experience smaller final bundle sizes when using the ESM module vs. the ESM bundle.

Dependencies

BootstrapVue relies on Popper.js (for Tooltip, Popover, and Dropdown positioning), PortalVue (for toasts) and vue-functional-data-merge (used by our functional components). These three dependencies are included in the UMD bundle.

Migrating a project already using Bootstrap

If you've already been using Bootstrap v4, there are a couple adjustments you may need to make to your project:

  • Remove the bootstrap.js file from your page scripts or build pipeline
  • If Bootstrap is the only thing relying on jQuery, you can safely remove it — BootstrapVue does not depend on jQuery
  • Convert your native Bootstrap HTML markup into the simplified BootstrapVue custom component markup

Browser support

CSS

BootstrapVue is to be used with Bootstrap v4.3 CSS/SCSS. Please see Browsers and devices for more information about browsers currently supported by Bootstrap v4.

JS

BootstrapVue is written in Vue.js! So it is up to your project and bundler which browsers are supported.

Following features and APIs are used by BootstrapVue:

  • ES6 (e.g. Array.from(), Array.isArray(), Object.assign(), Object.is(), etc.)
  • Promise
  • MutationObserver
  • IntersectionObserver (optional)

If you want to support older IE, Android, and iOS device web browsers, you may want to use core-js and intersection-observer:

  • npm install core-js regenerator-runtime intersection-observer
  • Import the polyfills in your app main entry point:
import 'core-js/stable'
import 'regenerator-runtime/runtime'
import 'intersection-observer' // Optional
import Vue from 'vue'
import BootstrapVue from 'bootstrap-vue'

If using deprecated @babel/polyfill:

  • npm install @babel/polyfill intersection-observer
  • Import the polyfills in your app main entry point:
import '@babel/polyfill'
import 'intersection-observer' // Optional
import Vue from 'vue'
import BootstrapVue from 'bootstrap-vue'

Alternatively, use Polyfill.io to dynamically serve browser specific polyfills via <script> tags in the HTML <head> section. See the Browser section above for an example.

Tooling support

VS Code + Vetur

If you are using VS Code as your text editor, BootstrapVue has intellisense autocompletion for component attributes available when using the Vetur extension.

Twitter: Vetur + BootstrapVue