[Solved]-Bootstrap dropdown not working
A drop-down is like a list box that shows only one item when inactive. When we click on it it shows the full list. Bootstrap provides one such component called Bootstrap dropdown. It is toggleable and has a predefined list of items that can be selected on clicking.
But sometimes we see that the dropdown is not working properly. There can be many reasons for that.
Reason 1: Forgot to include the popper.js/ popper.min.js file in the project code.
<!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 href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.1/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Atwg2Pkwv9vp0ygtn1JAojH0nYbwNJLPhwyoVbhoPwBhjQPR5VtM2+xf0Uwh9KtT" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton1" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown button
</button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuButton1">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
In the following program, the dropdown buttons cannot be toggled.
Solution:
Bootstrap Dropdown is built on the third-party library popper which provides dynamic positioning. So remember to include popper.min.js file before Bootstrap javascript or include bootstrap.bundle.min.js / bootstrap.bundle.js which contains Popper.
<!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 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@5.0.1/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Atwg2Pkwv9vp0ygtn1JAojH0nYbwNJLPhwyoVbhoPwBhjQPR5VtM2+xf0Uwh9KtT" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton1" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown button
</button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuButton1">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
So now the dropdown starts working.
Reason 2: Not supported by the old browsers
Bootstrap 5 has dropped the support of many older versions of browsers like:
- Internet Explorer 10 and 11
- Microsoft Edge < 16 (Legacy Edge)
- Firefox < 60
- Safari < 12
- iOS Safari < 12
- Chrome < 60
So if you are using the higher versions of the browsers, then there are chances that the dropdown will not work. So use the latest version of the browsers.
Reason 3: Forgot to add the data attribute
Sometimes, we forgot to add data-bs-toggle in the code and then dropdown does not work properly. See the example below.
<!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 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@5.0.1/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Atwg2Pkwv9vp0ygtn1JAojH0nYbwNJLPhwyoVbhoPwBhjQPR5VtM2+xf0Uwh9KtT" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton1" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown button
</button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuButton1">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Output:
Though the popper.min.js file is included the dropdown is not working.
Solution :
The dropdown should be toggled via data attributes or using javascript. In the above program, we have forgotten to add a data attribute so the dropdown is not working. So add data-bs-toggle="dropdown" to toggle the dropdown. You can also use javascript to toggle the dropdown.
<!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 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@5.0.1/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Atwg2Pkwv9vp0ygtn1JAojH0nYbwNJLPhwyoVbhoPwBhjQPR5VtM2+xf0Uwh9KtT" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton1" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Dropdown button
</button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuButton1">
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Output:
So now the dropdown can be toggled.
Conclusion
Here, we have listed out the reasons why the dropdown is not working and also added the solution to make it workable.
