Bootstrap Stretched Link
To make any HTML element or bootstrap component clickable use Stretched Link. A stretched link generally has a page associated with it that contains extra information about the element. A stretched link makes the component clickable via a ::after pseudo-element which means the element with position: relative can be made clickable by using stretched link. Let's understand by some examples.
Example: Using stretched Links on card
- The card component has position:relative by default so we can easily add stretched links to the card.
- To add stretched links to the element use the .stretched-link class within the element.
Here in the example, we have added a stretched link with the .btn class.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title> Bootstrap </title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@popperjs/core@2.9.2/dist/umd/popper.min.js" ></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" ></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container mt-3">
<div class="card" style="width: 18rem;">
<img src="icon.png" class="card-img-top" alt="icon">
<div class="card-body">
<h5 class="card-title">Card with stretched link</h5>
<p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
<a href="#" class="btn btn-primary stretched-link">Go somewhere</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output
Here is the output of the above program.
Columns
We can add stretched links to the grid columns too. The columns and many other components do not have position: relative; by default so we need to add this to the component.
Example: Using the stretched link with columns
Here in the example, we have tried to show stretched links within the columns. Here we have added the .stretched-link class to the link element.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title> Bootstrap </title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@popperjs/core@2.9.2/dist/umd/popper.min.js" ></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" ></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="row g-0 bg-light position-relative">
<div class="col-6 mb-md-0 p-md-4">
<img src="icon.png" alt="icon" style=" max-height:150px; max-width: 150px">
</div>
<div class="col-6 p-4 ps-md-0">
<h5 class="mt-0">Columns with stretched link</h5>
<p>Another example to showcase stretched link. It is intended to mimic what some real-world content would look like.</p>
<a href="https://www.studytonight.com/" class="stretched-link">Click Here</a>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output
Here is the output of the above program.
Identifying the containing block
If the stretched link is not working, it may be because of the containing block. Here is a list of CSS properties that make an element the "containing block".
- A Position value other than static.
- A transform or perspective value other than none.
- A will-change value of transform or perspective.
Example: A non-workable stretched link
Here in the example, we have created cards with the stretched link. But the first stretched link will not work as we have added position:relative to the <a> tag which makes it a containing block. The other link will act as stretched link.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title> Bootstrap </title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@popperjs/core@2.9.2/dist/umd/popper.min.js" ></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" ></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="card" style="width: 18rem;">
<div class="card-body">
<h5 class="card-title">Card with stretched links</h5>
<p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
<p class="card-text">
<a href="#" class="stretched-link text-danger" style="position: relative;">Stretched link will not work here, because <code>position: relative</code> is added to the link</a>
</p>
<p class="card-text bg-light" >
<a href="#" class="text-warning stretched-link">stretched link</a> will only be spread over the <code>p</code>-tag, because a transform is applied to it.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Here is the output of the above program.
Conclusion
A stretched link helps the user with some additional links nested over it. Bootstrap 5 made it easy to use stretched links using its stretched link class. We can easily add stretched links to cards and columns as we did in this tutorial.
