[drop-down-menu] Allow click on twitter bootstrap dropdown toggle link?

We have setup the twitter bootstrap dropdown to work on hover (as opposed to click [yes we are aware of the no hover on touch devices]). But we want to be able to have the main link work when we click it.

By default twitter bootstrap blocks it, so how can we re-enable it?

Since there is not really an answer that works (selected answer disables dropdown), or overrides using javascript, here goes.

This is all html and css fix (uses two <a> tags):

<ul class="nav">
 <li class="dropdown dropdown-li">
    <a class="dropdown-link" href="http://google.com">Dropdown</a>
    <a class="dropdown-caret dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
        <li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
    </ul>
 </li>
</ul>

Now here's the CSS you need.

.dropdown-li {
    display:inline-block !important;
}
.dropdown-link {
    display:inline-block !important; 
    padding-right:4px !important;
}
.dropdown-caret {
    display:inline-block !important; 
    padding-left:4px !important;
}

Assuming you will want the both <a> tags to highlight on hover of either one, you will also need to override bootstrap, you might play around with the following:

.nav > li:hover {
    background-color: #f67a47; /*hover background color*/
}
.nav > li:hover > a {
    color: white; /*hover text color*/
}
.nav > li:hover > ul > a {
    color: black; /*dropdown item text color*/
}

You could use a javascript snippit

$(function()
{
    // Enable drop menu clicks
    $(".nav li > a").off();
});

That will unbind the click event preventing url changing.

An alternative solution is just to remove the 'dropdown-toggle' class from the anchor. After this clicking will no longer trigger the dropwon.js, so you may want to have the submenu to show on hover.

For those of you complaining about "the submenus don't drop down", I solved it this way, which looks clean to me:

1) Besides your

<a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
     Dropdown <b class="caret"></b>
</a>

put a new

<a class="dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>

and remove the <b class="caret"></b> tag, so it will look like

<a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
Dropdown</a><a class="dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>

2) Style them with the following css rules:

.caret1 {
    position: absolute !important; top: 0; right: 0;
}

.dropdown-toggle.disabled {
    padding-right: 40px;
}

The style in .caret1 class is for positioning it absolutely inside your li, at the right corner.

The second style is for adding some padding to the right of the dropdown to place the caret, preventing overlapping the text of the menu item.

Now you have a nice responsive menu item which looks nice both in desktop and mobile versions and that is both clickable and dropdownable depending on whether you click on the text or on the caret.

I'm not sure about the issue for making the top level anchor element a clickable anchor but here's the simplest solution for making desktop views have the hover effect, and mobile views maintaining their click-ability.

// Medium screens and up only
@media only screen and (min-width: $screen-md-min) {
    // Enable menu hover for bootstrap
    // dropdown menus
    .dropdown:hover .dropdown-menu {
        display: block;
    }
}

This way the mobile menu still behaves as it should, while the desktop menu will expand on hover instead of on a click.

This can be done simpler by adding two links, one with text and href and one with the dropdown and caret:

<a href="{{route('posts.index')}}">Posts</a>
<a href="{{route('posts.index')}}" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" role="link" aria-haspopup="true" aria- expanded="false"></a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu navbar-inverse bg-inverse">
    <li><a href="{{route('posts.create')}}">Create</a></li>
</ul>

Now you click the caret for dropdown and the link as a link. No css or js needed. I use Bootstrap 4 4.0.0-alpha.6, defining the caret is not necessary, it appears without the html.

Here's a little hack that switched from data-hover to data-toggle depending the screen width:

/**
 * Bootstrap nav menu hack
 */
$(window).on('load', function () {
    // On page load
    if ($(window).width() < 768) {
        $('.navbar-nav > li > .dropdown-toggle').removeAttr('data-hover').attr('data-toggle', 'dropdown');
    }

    // On window resize
    $(window).resize(function () {
        if ($(window).width() < 768) {
            $('.navbar-nav > li > .dropdown-toggle').removeAttr('data-hover').attr('data-toggle', 'dropdown');
        } else {
            $('.navbar-nav > li > .dropdown-toggle').removeAttr('data-toggle').attr('data-hover', 'dropdown');
        }
    });
});