Bootstrap DropDowns and Responsive Tabs

Last Updated : 20 Feb, 2023

Dropdown Menu Using Bootstrap:

In bootstrap, dropdowns are created using the class="dropdown". What we will do is create a button and then convert the button into a dropdown.
As already stated in the last few tutorials, buttons can be created using the <button> tag. But in this button, we want to create a dropdown, so we will add the class="btn dropdown-toggle" and data-toggle="dropdown".

Basically, it would look something like this.

<button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown"> My Dropdown </button>

Note: data- toggle attribute has been replaced with data-bs-toggle in Bootstrap. So, to run the below code with Bootstrap 5 makes sure to replace data-toggle with data-bs-toggle.

Now we want to convert this button into a dropdown. So, we'll create an unordered list using the <ul> tag having class="dropdown-menu" and add items using the <li> tag.

Example:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Bootstrap Example</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" 
        content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <script src=
"https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.0/jquery.min.js">
    </script>
    <script src=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/js/bootstrap.min.js">
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container" style="color:green">
        <h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <h4>Dropdown in Bootstrap</h4>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-3">
                <div class="dropdown">
                    <button class="btn btn-success dropdown-toggle" 
                        type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
                        GeeksforGeeks
                        <span class="caret"></span>
                    </button>
                    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                        <li><a href="#">HTML</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">CSS</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">JavaScript</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">SQL</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Output:

Bootstrap DropDowns and Responsive Tabs

You can make your dropdown better by using classes in the <li> tag. To add a header in a dropdown add class="dropdown-header", to add a divider between items, use class="divider" and to disable an item in the list, use class="disabled".

Example:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Bootstrap Example</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" 
        content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <script src=
"https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.0/jquery.min.js">
    </script>
    <script src=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/js/bootstrap.min.js">
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container" style="color:green">
        <h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <h4>Dropdown in Bootstrap</h4>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-3">
                <div class="dropdown">
                    <button class="btn btn-success dropdown-toggle" 
                        type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
                        GeeksforGeeks
                        <span class="caret"></span>
                    </button>
                    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                        <li class="dropdown-header container">
                            <b>HTML</b>
                        </li>
                        <li><a href="#">CSS</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">JS</a></li>
                        <li class="divider"></li>
                        <li class="dropdown-header container">
                            <b>Language</b>
                        </li>
                        <li><a href="#"></a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Python</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">SQL</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Output:

Navigation Tabs using Bootstrap:

To create a tabbed navigation menu, we need to make an unordered list using the <ul> tag and add class="nav nav-tabs". Now we can add our tabs using the <li> tag. Remember to assign one tab with class="active" to view it as the default active tab. Now, we need to write the content of each tab using the class="tab-pane" within the class=" tab-content". Note that you must assign ids to the respective tab-pane.
Adding the class="fade" adds a fading effect when the tabs are switched.

Example:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Bootstrap Example</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" 
        content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <script src=
"https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.0/jquery.min.js">
    </script>
    <script src=
"https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/js/bootstrap.min.js">
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container" style="color:green">
        <h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <h4>Navigation Tabs in Bootstrap</h4>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <nav class="navbar navbar-default">
            <div class="container-fluid">
                <div class="navbar-header">
                    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
                        Nav bar
                    </a>
                </div>
                <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                    <li class="active">
                        <a href="#">Home</a>
                    </li>
                    <li><a href="#">Practice</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Interviews</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Contribute</a></li>
                </ul>
            </div>
        </nav>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Output:

You can change the look and feel of the tabs by changing the class="navbar-nav" to "nav-pills" or "nav-stacked" and if you want your tabs to cover the whole screen then, try adding the class="nav-justified"
Similar to Dropdowns, we can disable any tab using class="disabled".

Output:

Bootstrap DropDowns and Responsive Tabs