Avoid dropdown menu close on click inside

Question

I have a Twitter Bootstrap dropdown menu. As all Twitter Bootstrap users know, the dropdown menu closes on click (even clicking inside it).

To avoid this, I can easily attach a click event handler on the dropdown menu and simply add the famous event.stopPropagation().

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
  <li class="dropdown mega-dropdown">
    <a href="javascript:;" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
      <i class="fa fa-list-alt"></i> Menu item 1
      <span class="fa fa-chevron-down pull-right"></span>
    </a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu mega-dropdown-menu">
      <li>
        <div id="carousel" class="carousel slide" data-ride="carousel">
          <ol class="carousel-indicators">
            <li data-slide-to="0" data-target="#carousel"></li>
            <li class="active" data-slide-to="1" data-target="#carousel"></li>
          </ol>
          <div class="carousel-inner">
            <div class="item">
              <img alt="" class="img-rounded" src="img1.jpg">
            </div>
            <div class="item active">
              <img alt="" class="img-rounded" src="img2.jpg">
            </div>
          </div>
          <a data-slide="prev" role="button" href="#carousel" 
             class="left carousel-control">
            <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-left"></span>
          </a>
          <a data-slide="next" role="button" href="#carousel" 
             class="right carousel-control">
            <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></span>
          </a>
        </div>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

This looks easy and a very common behavior, however, and since carousel-controls (as well as carousel indicators) event handlers are delegated to the document object, the click event on these elements (prev/next controls, ...) will be “ignored”.

$('ul.dropdown-menu.mega-dropdown-menu').on('click', function(event){
    // The event won't be propagated up to the document NODE and 
    // therefore delegated events won't be fired
    event.stopPropagation();
});

Relying on Twitter Bootstrap dropdown hide/hidden events is not a solution for the following reasons:

• The provided event object for both event handlers does not give reference to the clicked element
• I don't have control over the dropdown menu content so adding a flag class or attribute is not possible

This fiddle is the normal behavior and this fiddle is with event.stopPropagation() added.

Update

Thanks to Roman for his answer. I also found an answer that you can find below.

Answer 1

Removing the data attribute data-toggle="dropdown" and implementing the open/close of the dropdown can be a solution.

First by handling the click on the link to open/close the dropdown like this :

$('li.dropdown.mega-dropdown a').on('click', function (event) {
    $(this).parent().toggleClass('open');
});

and then listening the clicks outside of the dropdown to close it like this :

$('body').on('click', function (e) {
    if (!$('li.dropdown.mega-dropdown').is(e.target) 
        && $('li.dropdown.mega-dropdown').has(e.target).length === 0 
        && $('.open').has(e.target).length === 0
    ) {
        $('li.dropdown.mega-dropdown').removeClass('open');
    }
});

Here is the demo : http://jsfiddle.net/RomaLefrancois/hh81rhcm/2/

Answer 2

This should help as well

$(document).on('click', 'someyourContainer .dropdown-menu', function (e) {
  e.stopPropagation();
});

Answer 3

Bootstrap provides the following function:

                 | This event is fired immediately when the hide instance method 
hide.bs.dropdown | has been called. The toggling anchor element is available as the 
                 | relatedTarget property of the event.

Therefore, implementing this function should be able to disable the dropdown from closing.

$('#myDropdown').on('hide.bs.dropdown', function (e) {
    var target = $(e.target);
    if(target.hasClass("keepopen") || target.parents(".keepopen").length){
        return false; // returning false should stop the dropdown from hiding.
    }else{
        return true;
    }
});

Answer 4

The absolute best answer is to put a form tag after the class dropdown-menu

so your code is

<ul class="dropdown-menu">
  <form>
    <li>
      <div class="menu-item">bla bla bla</div>
    </li>
  </form>
</ul>

Answer 5

This might help:

$("dropdownmenuname").click(function(e){
   e.stopPropagation();
})

Answer 6

I also found a solution.

Assuming that the Twitter Bootstrap Components related events handlers are delegated to the document object, I loop the attached handlers and check if the current clicked element (or one of its parents) is concerned by a delegated event.

$('ul.dropdown-menu.mega-dropdown-menu').on('click', function(event){
    var events = $._data(document, 'events') || {};
    events = events.click || [];
    for(var i = 0; i < events.length; i++) {
        if(events[i].selector) {

            //Check if the clicked element matches the event selector
            if($(event.target).is(events[i].selector)) {
                events[i].handler.call(event.target, event);
            }

            // Check if any of the clicked element parents matches the 
            // delegated event selector (Emulating propagation)
            $(event.target).parents(events[i].selector).each(function(){
                events[i].handler.call(this, event);
            });
        }
    }
    event.stopPropagation(); //Always stop propagation
});

Hope it helps any one looking for a similar solution.

Thank you all for your help.

Answer 7

$('body').on("click", ".dropdown-menu", function (e) {
    $(this).parent().is(".open") && e.stopPropagation();
});

This may work for any conditions.

Answer 8

I tried this simple thing and it worked like a charm.

I changed the dropdown-menu element from <div> to <form> and it worked well.

<div class="nav-item dropdown" >
  <a href="javascript:;" class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
   Click to open dropdown
 </a>
 <form class="dropdown-menu   ">
  <ul class="list-group text-black">
     <li class="list-group-item"  >
     </li>
     <li class="list-group-item"   >
     </li>
  </ul>
</form>

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.7/umd/popper.min.js"></script>

<script src="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>


<link href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>


<div class="nav-item dropdown" >
  <a href="javascript:;" class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
   Click to open dropdown
 </a>
 <form class="dropdown-menu   ">
  <ul class="list-group text-black">
     <li class="list-group-item"  >
      List Item 1
     </li>
     <li class="list-group-item"   >
         LI 2<input class="form-control" />
     </li>
     <li class="list-group-item"   >
        List Item 3
     </li>
  </ul>
</form>

Answer 9

jQuery:

<script>
  $(document).on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.dropdown.keep-inside-clicks-open', function (e) {
    e.stopPropagation();
  });
</script>

HTML:

<div class="dropdown keep-inside-clicks-open">
  <button class="btn btn-primary dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
     Dropdown Example
    <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>
  </ul>
</div>

Demo:

Generic: https://jsfiddle.net/kerryjohnson/omefq68b/1/

Your demo with this solution: http://jsfiddle.net/kerryjohnson/80oLdtbf/101/

Answer 10

I modified @Vartan's answer to make it work with Bootstrap 4.3. His solution doesn't work anymore with the latest version as target property always returns dropdown's root div no matter where the click was placed.

Here is the code:

$('.dropdown-keep-open').on('hide.bs.dropdown', function (e) {
  if (!e.clickEvent) {
    // There is no `clickEvent` property in the `e` object when the `button` (or any other trigger) is clicked. 
    // What we usually want to happen in such situations is to hide the dropdown so we let it hide. 
    return true;
  }

  var target = $(e.clickEvent.target);

  return !(target.hasClass('dropdown-keep-open') || target.parents('.dropdown-keep-open').length);
});

<div class="dropdown dropdown-keep-open">
  <button class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false">
    Dropdown button
  </button>
  <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenuButton">
    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a>
    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a>
    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 11

$('body').on("click", ".dropdown-menu", function (e) {
    $(this).parent().is(".show") && e.stopPropagation();
});

Answer 12

I just add onclick event like below to not close dropdown-menu.

 <div class="dropdown-menu dropdown-menu-right" onclick="event.stopPropagation()" aria-labelledby="triggerId">

Answer 13

I've got a similar problem recently and tried different ways to solve it with removing the data attribute data-toggle="dropdown" and listening click with event.stopPropagation() calling.

The second way looks more preferable. Also Bootstrap developers use this way. In the source file I found initialization of the dropdown elements:

// APPLY TO STANDARD DROPDOWN ELEMENTS
$(document)
.on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', clearMenus)
.on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.dropdown form', function (e) { e.stopPropagation() })
.on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', toggle, Dropdown.prototype.toggle)
.on('keydown.bs.dropdown.data-api', toggle, Dropdown.prototype.keydown)
.on('keydown.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.dropdown-menu', Dropdown.prototype.keydown)
}(jQuery);

So, this line:

.on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.dropdown form', function (e) { e.stopPropagation() })

suggests you can put a form element inside the container with class .dropdown to avoid closing the dropdown menu.

Answer 14

Bootstrap has solved this problem themselves in their support for <form> tags in dropdowns. Their solution is quite graspable and you can read it here: https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/blob/v4-dev/js/src/dropdown.js

It boils down to preventing propagation at the document element and doing so only for events of type 'click.bs.dropdown.data-api' that match the selector '.dropdown .your-custom-class-for-keep-open-on-click-elements'.

Or in code

$(document).on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.dropdown .keep-open-on-click', (event) => {
    event.stopPropagation();
});

Answer 15

You could simply execute event.stopPropagation on click event of the links themselves. Something like this.

    $(".dropdown-menu a").click((event) => {
         event.stopPropagation()
         let url = event.target.href
         //Do something with the url or any other logic you wish
    })

Edit: If someone saw this answer and is using react, it will not work. React handle the javascript events differently and by the time your react event handler is being called, the event has already been fired and propagated. To overcome that you should attach the event manually like that

handleMenuClick(event) {
   event.stopPropagation()
   let menu_item = event.target
   //implement your logic here.
}
componentDidMount() {
    document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-menu")[0].addEventListener(
        "click", this.handleMenuClick.bind(this), false)
   }
}

Answer 16

You can also use form tag. Example:

<div class="dropdown-menu">
    <form>
        Anything inside this wont close the dropdown!
        <button class="btn btn-primary" type="button" value="Click me!"/>
    </form>
    <div class="dropdown-divider"></div>
    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Clik this and the dropdown will be closed</a>
    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">This too</a>
</div>

Source: https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.0/components/dropdowns/#forms

Answer 17

You can stop click on the dropdown from propagating and then manually reimplement the carousel controls using carousel javascript methods.

$('ul.dropdown-menu.mega-dropdown-menu').on('click', function(event) {
    event.stopPropagation();
});

$('a.left').click(function () {
    $('#carousel').carousel('prev');
});

$('a.right').click(function () {
    $('#carousel').carousel('next');
});

$('ol.carousel-indicators li').click(function (event) {
    var index = $(this).data("slide-to");
    $('#carousel').carousel(index);
});

Here is the jsfiddle.

Answer 18

• demo: http://jsfiddle.net/4y8tLgcp/

$('ul.nav.navbar-nav').on('click.bs.dropdown', function(e){
    var $a  = $(e.target), is_a = $a.is('.is_a');
    if($a.hasClass('dropdown-toggle')){   
        $('ul.dropdown-menu', this).toggle(!is_a);
        $a.toggleClass('is_a', !is_a);
    }
}).on('mouseleave', function(){
    $('ul.dropdown-menu',this).hide();
    $('.is_a', this).removeClass('is_a');
});

i have updated it once again to be the smartest and functional as possible. it now close when you hover outside the nav, remaining open while you are inside it. simply perfect.

Answer 19

Like for instance Bootstrap 4 Alpha has this Menu Event. Why not use?

// PREVENT INSIDE MEGA DROPDOWN
$('.dropdown-menu').on("click.bs.dropdown", function (e) {
    e.stopPropagation();
    e.preventDefault();                
});

Answer 20

I know this question was specifically for jQuery, but for anyone using AngularJS that has this problem you can create a directive that handles this:

angular.module('app').directive('dropdownPreventClose', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
          element.on('click', function(e) {
            e.stopPropagation(); //prevent the default behavior of closing the dropdown-menu
          });
        }
    };
});

Then just add the attribute dropdown-prevent-close to your element that is triggering the menu to close, and it should prevent it. For me, it was a select element that automatically closed the menu:

<div class="dropdown-menu">
  <select dropdown-prevent-close name="myInput" id="myInput" ng-model="myModel">
    <option value="">Select Me</option>
  </select>
</div>

Answer 21

With Angular2 Bootstrap, you can use nonInput for most scenarios:

<div dropdown autoClose="nonInput">

nonInput - (default) automatically closes the dropdown when any of its elements is clicked — as long as the clicked element is not an input or a textarea.

https://valor-software.com/ng2-bootstrap/#/dropdowns

Answer 22

[Bootstrap 4 Alpha 6][Rails] For rails developer, e.stopPropagation() will lead to undesirable behavior for link_to with data-method not equal to get since it will by default return all your request as get.

To remedy this problem, I suggest this solution, which is universal

$('.dropdown .dropdown-menu').on('click.bs.dropdown', function() {
  return $('.dropdown').one('hide.bs.dropdown', function() {
    return false;
  });
});

$('.dropdown .dropdown-menu').on('click.bs.dropdown', function() {
  return $('.dropdown').one('hide.bs.dropdown', function() {
    return false;
  });
});

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-alpha.6/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-rwoIResjU2yc3z8GV/NPeZWAv56rSmLldC3R/AZzGRnGxQQKnKkoFVhFQhNUwEyJ" crossorigin="anonymous">
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-A7FZj7v+d/sdmMqp/nOQwliLvUsJfDHW+k9Omg/a/EheAdgtzNs3hpfag6Ed950n" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/tether/1.4.0/js/tether.min.js" integrity="sha384-DztdAPBWPRXSA/3eYEEUWrWCy7G5KFbe8fFjk5JAIxUYHKkDx6Qin1DkWx51bBrb" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-alpha.6/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-vBWWzlZJ8ea9aCX4pEW3rVHjgjt7zpkNpZk+02D9phzyeVkE+jo0ieGizqPLForn" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
  <li class="dropdown mega-dropdown">
    <a href="javascript:;" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
      <i class="fa fa-list-alt"></i> Menu item 1
      <span class="fa fa-chevron-down pull-right"></span>
    </a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu mega-dropdown-menu">
      <li>
        <div id="carousel" class="carousel slide" data-ride="carousel">
          <ol class="carousel-indicators">
            <li data-slide-to="0" data-target="#carousel"></li>
            <li class="active" data-slide-to="1" data-target="#carousel"></li>
          </ol>
          <div class="carousel-inner">
            <div class="item">
              <img alt="" class="img-rounded" src="img1.jpg">
            </div>
            <div class="item active">
              <img alt="" class="img-rounded" src="img2.jpg">
            </div>
          </div>
          <a data-slide="prev" role="button" href="#carousel" class="left carousel-control">
            <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-left"></span>
          </a>
          <a data-slide="next" role="button" href="#carousel" class="right carousel-control">
            <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></span>
          </a>
        </div>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Answer 23

I know there already is a previous answer suggesting to use a form but the markup provided is not correct/ideal. Here's the easiest solution, no javascript needed at all and it doesn't break your dropdown. Works with Bootstrap 4.

<form class="dropdown-item"> <!-- Your elements go here --> </form>

Answer 24

This helped me,

$('.dropdown-menu').on('click', function (e) {
     if ($(this).parent().is(".open")) {
         var target = $(e.target);
         if (target.hasClass("keepopen") || target.parents(".keepopen").length){
                    return false; 
                }else{
                    return true;
                }
            }            
});

Your drop down menu element needs to be like this, (take a note of the classes dropdown-menu and keepopen.

<ul role="menu" class="dropdown-menu topmenu-menu eserv_top_notifications keepopen">

The above code prevents biding on the whole <body>, instead to the specfic element with the class dropdown-menu.

Hope this helps someone.

Thanks.

Answer 25

The simplest working solution for me is:

• adding keep-open class to elements that should not cause dropdown closing
• and this piece of code do the rest:

$('.dropdown').on('click', function(e) {
    var target = $(e.target);
    var dropdown = target.closest('.dropdown');
    return !dropdown.hasClass('open') || !target.hasClass('keep-open');
});

Answer 26

I've found none of the solutions worked as I would like using default bootstrap nav. Here is my solution to this problem:

       $(document).on('hide.bs.dropdown', function (e) {
        if ($(e.currentTarget.activeElement).hasClass('dropdown-toggle')) {
          $(e.relatedTarget).parent().removeClass('open');
          return true;
        }
        return false;
       });

Answer 27

Instead of writing some javascript or jquery code(reinventing the wheel). The above scenario can be managed by bootstrap auto-close option. You can provide either of the values to auto-close:

1. always - (Default) automatically closes the dropdown when any of its elements is clicked.

2. outsideClick - closes the dropdown automatically only when the user clicks any element outside the dropdown.

3. disabled - disables the auto close

Take a look at the following plunkr :

http://plnkr.co/edit/gnU8M2fqlE0GscUQtCWa?p=preview

Set

uib-dropdown auto-close="disabled" 

Hope this helps :)

Answer 28

In .dropdown content put the .keep-open class on any label like so:

$('.dropdown').on('click', function (e) {
    var target = $(e.target);
    var dropdown = target.closest('.dropdown');
    if (target.hasClass('keep-open')) {
        $(dropdown).addClass('keep-open');
    } else {
        $(dropdown).removeClass('keep-open');
    }
});

$(document).on('hide.bs.dropdown', function (e) {
    var target = $(e.target);
    if ($(target).is('.keep-open')) {
        return false
    }
});

The previous cases avoided the events related to the container objects, now the container inherits the class keep-open and check before being closed.

Answer 29

I did it with this:

$(element).on({
    'mouseenter': function(event) {
        $(event.currentTarget).data('mouseover', true);
    },
    'mouseleave': function(event) {
        $(event.currentTarget).data('mouseover', false);
    },
    'hide.bs.dropdown': function (event) {
        return !$(event.currentTarget).data('mouseover');
    }
});

Answer 30

You can go through the below code to solve this.

$(document).on('click.bs.dropdown.data-api', '.keep_it_open', function (e) {
  e.stopPropagation();
});

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>


<div class="dropdown keep_it_open">
        <button class="btn btn-primary dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">Dropdown Example
        <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>
        </ul>
      </div>