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Navs

Navigation available in Bootstrap share general markup and styles, from the base <b-nav> class to the active and disabled states. Swap modifier props to switch between each style.

<div>
  <b-nav>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Another Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav.vue -->

Overview

The base <b-nav> component is built with flexbox and provides a strong foundation for building all types of navigation components. It includes some style overrides (for working with lists), some link padding for larger hit areas, and basic disabled styling. No active states are included in the base nav.

<b-nav> supports the following child components:

  • <b-nav-item> for actionable links (or router-links)
  • <b-nav-item-dropdown> for dropdowns
  • <b-nav-text> for plain text content
  • <b-nav-form> for inline forms

Two style variations are supported: tabs and pills, which support active state styling. These variants are mutually exclusive - use only one style or the other.

Tab style

Make the nav look like tabs by setting the tabs prop.

<div>
  <b-nav tabs>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Another Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-tabs.vue -->

Pill style

Use the pill style by setting the pills prop.

<div>
  <b-nav pills>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Another Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-pills.vue -->

Small

Make the nav smaller by setting the small prop.

<div>
  <b-nav small>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Another Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-small.vue -->

Fill and justify

Force your <b-nav> content to extend the full available width.

Fill

To proportionately fill all available space with your <b-nav-item> components, set the fill prop. Notice that all horizontal space is occupied, but not every nav item has the same width.

<div>
  <b-nav tabs fill>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link with a long name </b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-fill.vue -->

Justified

For equal-width elements, set the justified prop instead. All horizontal space will be occupied by nav links, but unlike fill above, every <b-nav-item> will be the same width.

<div>
  <b-nav tabs justified>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link with a long name </b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-justified.vue -->

Alignment

To align your <b-nav-item> components, use the align prop. Available values are left, center and right.

<div>
  <b-nav tabs align="center">
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link with a long name </b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-alignment.vue -->

Vertical variation

By default <b-nav> appear on a horizontal line. Stack your navigation by setting the vertical prop.

<div>
  <b-nav vertical class="w-25">
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Another Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-vertical.vue -->

Use <b-nav-item-dropdown> to place dropdown items within your nav.

<div>
  <b-nav pills>
    <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item>Link</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item-dropdown
      id="my-nav-dropdown"
      text="Dropdown"
      toggle-class="nav-link-custom"
      right
    >
      <b-dropdown-item>One</b-dropdown-item>
      <b-dropdown-item>Two</b-dropdown-item>
      <b-dropdown-divider></b-dropdown-divider>
      <b-dropdown-item>Three</b-dropdown-item>
    </b-nav-item-dropdown>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-item-dropdown.vue -->

Sometimes you want to add your own class names to the generated dropdown toggle button, that by default have the classes nav-link and dropdown-toggle. Use the toggle-class prop to add them (like above) which will render HTML similar to:

<li id="my-nav-dropdown" class="nav-item b-nav-dropdown dropdown">
  <a
    role="button"
    href="#my-nav-dropdown"
    id="my-nav-dropdown__BV_button_"
    aria-haspopup="true"
    aria-expanded="false"
    class="nav-link dropdown-toggle nav-link-custom"
  ></a>
  ...
</li>

Refer to <b-dropdown> for a list of supported sub-components.

Optionally scoped default slot

The dropdown default slot is optionally scoped with the following scope available:

Property or Method Description
hide() Can be used to close the dropdown menu. Accepts an optional boolean argument, which if true returns focus to the toggle button

Lazy dropdown

By default, <b-nav-item-dropdown> renders the menu contents in the DOM even when the menu is not shown. When there are a large number of dropdowns rendered on the same page, performance could be impacted due to larger overall memory utilization. You can instruct <b-nav-item-dropdown> to render the menu contents only when it is shown by setting the lazy prop to true.

Use the dropdown props right, dropup, dropright, dropleft, no-flip, and offset to control the positioning of <b-nav-item-dropdown>.

Refer to the <b-dropdown> positioning section for details on the effects and usage of these props.

Note that the toggle button is actually rendered as a link <a> tag with role="button" for styling purposes, and typically has the href set to # unless an ID is provided via the id prop.

The toggle will prevent scroll-top-top behaviour (via JavaScript) when clicking the toggle link. In some cases when using SSR, and the user clicks the toggle button before Vue has had a chance to hydrate the component, the page will scroll to top. In these cases, simply providing a unique ID via the id prop will prevent the unwanted scroll-to-top behaviour.

Nav text content

Use the <b-nav-text> child component to place plain text content into the nav:

<div>
  <b-nav >
    <b-nav-item href="#1">Link 1</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item href="#2">Link 2</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-text>Plain text</b-nav-text>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-text.vue -->

Use the <b-nav-form> child component to place an inline form into the nav:

<div>
  <b-nav pills>
    <b-nav-item href="#1" active>Link 1</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-item href="#2">Link 2</b-nav-item>
    <b-nav-form @submit.stop.prevent="alert('Form Submitted')">
      <b-form-input aria-label="Input" class="mr-1"></b-form-input>
      <b-button type="submit">Ok</b-button>
    </b-nav-form>
  </b-nav>
</div>

<!-- b-nav-form.vue -->

Refer to the <b-form> inline documentation for additional details on placing form controls.

Tabbed local content support

See the <b-tabs> component for creating tabbable panes of local content (not suited for navigation).

Card integration

Use a <b-nav> in a <b-card> header, by enabling the card-header prop on <b-nav> and setting either the pills or tabs props:

Tabs style:

<div>
  <b-card title="Card Title" no-body>
    <b-card-header header-tag="nav">
      <b-nav card-header tabs>
        <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item>Inactive</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
      </b-nav>
    </b-card-header>

    <b-card-body class="text-center">
      <b-card-text>
        With supporting text below as a natural lead-in to additional content.
      </b-card-text>

      <b-button variant="primary">Go somewhere</b-button>
    </b-card-body>
  </b-card>
</div>

<!-- nav-card-tabs.vue -->

Pill style:

<div>
  <b-card title="Card Title" no-body>
    <b-card-header header-tag="nav">
      <b-nav card-header pills>
        <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item>Inactive</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
      </b-nav>
    </b-card-header>

    <b-card-body class="text-center">
      <b-card-text>
        With supporting text below as a natural lead-in to additional content.
      </b-card-text>

      <b-button variant="primary">Go somewhere</b-button>
    </b-card-body>
  </b-card>
</div>

<!-- nav-card-pills.vue -->

Plain style:

The card-header prop is only needed when you are applying tabs or pills style. Note that Bootstrap v4 SCSS does not have special styling for active state plain style nav items.

<div>
  <b-card title="Card Title" no-body>
    <b-card-header header-tag="nav">
      <b-nav>
        <b-nav-item active>Active</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item>Inactive</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item disabled>Disabled</b-nav-item>
      </b-nav>
    </b-card-header>

    <b-card-body class="text-center">
      <b-card-text>
        With supporting text below as a natural lead-in to additional content.
      </b-card-text>

      <b-button variant="primary">Go somewhere</b-button>
    </b-card-body>
  </b-card>
</div>

<!-- nav-card-plain.vue -->

The card-header prop has no styling effect if the <b-nav> is in vertical mode.

Using with Vue Router

Have your card <b-nav> control vue router nested routes via <router-view> or <nuxt-child> components, to created tabbed content that changes with route URL:

// On page with route `/some/route`
<div>
  <b-card title="Card Title" no-body>
    <b-card-header header-tag="nav">
      <b-nav card-header tabs>
        <!-- <b-nav-item>'s with child routes. Note the trailing slash on the first <b-nav-item> -->
        <b-nav-item to="/some/route/" exact exact-active-class="active">Active</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item to="/some/route/foo" exact exact-active-class="active">Foo</b-nav-item>
        <b-nav-item to="/some/route/bar" exact exact-active-class="active">Bar</b-nav-item>
      </b-nav>
    </b-card-header>

    <b-card-body>
      <!-- Child route gets rendered in <router-view> or <nuxt-child> -->
      <router-view></router-view>
      <!-- Or if using Nuxt.js
      <nuxt-child></nuxt-child>
      -->
    </b-card-body>
  </b-card>
</div>

Note: Vue Router does not support defining active routes with hashes (#), which is why you must define the "tab" content as child routes.

Example router config for above:

const routes = [
  {
    path: '/some/route',
    // We don't provide a name on this parent route, but rather
    // set the name on the default child route instead
    // name: 'some-route',
    component: SomeRouteComponent,
    // Child route "tabs"
    children: [
      // Note we provide the above parent route name on the default child tab
      // route to ensure this tab is rendered by default when using named routes
      { path: '', component: DefaultTabComponent, name: 'some-route' },
      { path: 'foo', component: FooTabComponent },
      { path: 'bar', component: BarTabComponent }
    ]
  }
]

One can also use Vue Router named routes and/or route params instead of path based routes.

For more details see:

Accessibility

If you're using <b-nav> to provide a navigation bar, be sure to add a role="navigation" to the most logical parent container of <b-nav>, or wrap a <nav> element around <b-nav>. Do not add the role to the <b-nav> itself, as this would prevent it from being announced as an actual list by assistive technologies.

When using a <b-nav-item-dropdown> in your <b-nav>, be sure to assign a unique id prop value to the <b-nav-item-dropdown> so that the appropriate aria-* attributes can be automatically generated.

Tabbed interface accessibility

Note that navigation bars, even if visually styled as tabs, should not be given role="tablist", role="tab" or role="tabpanel" attributes. These are only appropriate for tabbed interfaces that do not change the URL or $route, as described in the WAI ARIA Authoring Practices. See <b-tabs> for dynamic tabbed interfaces that are compliant with WAI ARIA.

Tabbed interfaces should avoid using dropdown menus, as this causes both usability and accessibility issues:

  • From a usability perspective, the fact that the currently displayed tab’s trigger element is not immediately visible (as it’s inside the closed dropdown menu) can cause confusion.
  • From an accessibility point of view, there is currently no sensible way to map this sort of construct to a standard WAI ARIA pattern, meaning that it cannot be easily made understandable to users of assistive technologies.

See also

  • <b-tabs> to create tabbable panes of local content, even via dropdown menus.
  • <b-navbar> a wrapper that positions branding, navigation, and other elements in a concise header.
  • <b-dropdown> for sub-components that you can place inside <b-nav-item-dropdown>
  • Router Link Support reference for information about router-link specific props available on <b-nav-item>

Component reference

<b-nav>

Functional component
View source

Properties

All property default values are globally configurable.

Property
Type
Default
Description
align
StringAlign the nav items in the nav: 'start' (or 'left'), 'center', 'end' (or 'right')
card-header
v2.0.0+ 		BooleanfalseSet this prop when the nav is placed inside a card header
fill
BooleanfalseProportionately fills all horizontal space with nav items. All horizontal space is occupied, but not every nav item has the same width
justified
BooleanfalseFills all horizontal space with nav items, but unlike 'fill', every nav item will be the same width
pills
BooleanfalseRenders the nav items with the appearance of pill buttons
small
BooleanfalseMakes the nav smaller
tabs
BooleanfalseRenders the nav items with the appearance of tabs
tag
String'ul'Specify the HTML tag to render instead of the default tag
vertical
BooleanfalseRenders the nav vertically

Slots

Name
Description
default Content to place in the nav

<b-nav-item>

Functional component
View source

Properties

All property default values are globally configurable.

Property
(Click to sort Ascending)
Type
(Click to sort Ascending)
Default
Description
active
BooleanfalseWhen set to `true`, places the component in the active state with active styling
active-class
String<router-link> prop: Configure the active CSS class applied when the link is active. Typically you will want to set this to class name 'active'
append
Booleanfalse<router-link> prop: Setting append prop always appends the relative path to the current path
disabled
BooleanfalseWhen set to `true`, disables the component's functionality and places it in a disabled state
exact
Booleanfalse<router-link> prop: The default active class matching behavior is inclusive match. Setting this prop forces the mode to exactly match the route
exact-active-class
String<router-link> prop: Configure the active CSS class applied when the link is active with exact match. Typically you will want to set this to class name 'active'
href
String<b-link> prop: Denotes the target URL of the link for standard a links
link-attrs
Object{}Additional attributes to place on the nested link element
link-classes
Array or Object or StringCSS class (or classes) to place on the nested link element
no-prefetch
Booleanfalse<nuxt-link> prop: To improve the responsiveness of your Nuxt.js applications, when the link will be displayed within the viewport, Nuxt.js will automatically prefetch the code splitted page. Setting `no-prefetch` will disabled this feature for the specific link
prefetch
v2.15.0+ 		Booleannull<nuxt-link> prop: To improve the responsiveness of your Nuxt.js applications, when the link will be displayed within the viewport, Nuxt.js will automatically prefetch the code splitted page. Setting `prefetch` to `true` or `false` will overwrite the default value of `router.prefetchLinks`
rel
Stringnull<b-link> prop: Sets the `rel` attribute on the rendered link
replace
Booleanfalse<router-link> prop: Setting the replace prop will call `router.replace()` instead of `router.push()` when clicked, so the navigation will not leave a history record
router-component-name
v2.15.0+ 		String<b-link> prop: BootstrapVue auto detects between `<router-link>` and `<nuxt-link>`. In cases where you want to use a 3rd party link component based on `<router-link>`, set this prop to the component name. e.g. set it to 'g-link' if you are using Gridsome (note only `<router-link>` specific props are passed to the component)
target
String'_self'<b-link> prop: Sets the `target` attribute on the rendered link
to
Object or String<router-link> prop: Denotes the target route of the link. When clicked, the value of the to prop will be passed to `router.push()` internally, so the value can be either a string or a Location descriptor object

<b-nav-item> supports generating <router-link> or <nuxt-link> component (if using Nuxt.js). For more details on the router link (or nuxt link) specific props, see the Router support reference section.

Slots

Name
Description
default Content to place in the nav item

<b-nav-text>

Functional component
View source

Slots

Name
Description
default Content to place in the nav text

<b-nav-form>

Functional component
View source

Properties

All property default values are globally configurable.

Property
Type
Default
Description
form-class
Array or Object or StringCSS class (or classes) to add to the form
id
StringUsed to set the `id` attribute on the rendered content, and used as the base to generate any additional element IDs as needed
novalidate
BooleanfalseWhen set, disables browser native HTML5 validation on controls in the form
validated
BooleanfalseWhen set, adds the Bootstrap class 'was-validated' on the form, triggering the native browser validation states

Slots

Name
Description
default Content to place in the nav form

Events

Event
Arguments
Description
submit
  1. event - Native submit event
Emitted when the form is being submitted

<b-nav-item-dropdown>

View source

Component aliases

<b-nav-item-dropdown> can also be used via the following aliases:

  • <b-nav-item-dd>
  • <b-nav-dropdown>
  • <b-nav-dd>

Note: component aliases are only available when importing all of BootstrapVue or using the component group plugin.

Properties

All property default values are globally configurable.

Property
(Click to sort Ascending)
Type
(Click to sort Ascending)
Default
Description
boundary
v2.4.0+ 		HTMLElement or String'scrollParent'The boundary constraint of the menu: 'scrollParent', 'window', 'viewport', or a reference to an HTMLElement. Has no effect when dropdown is inside a `<b-navbar>`
disabled
BooleanfalseWhen set to `true`, disables the component's functionality and places it in a disabled state
dropleft
BooleanfalseWhen set, positions the menu to the left of the button
dropright
BooleanfalseWhen set, positions the menu to the right of the button
dropup
BooleanfalseWhen set, positions the menu on the top of the button
html
Use with caution 		StringHTML string to place in the toggle element (link)
id
StringUsed to set the `id` attribute on the rendered content, and used as the base to generate any additional element IDs as needed
lazy
BooleanfalseWhen set, will only mount the menu content into the DOM when the menu is open
menu-class
Array or Object or StringCSS class (or classes) to add to the menu container
no-caret
BooleanfalseHide the caret indicator on the toggle element (link)
no-flip
BooleanfalsePrevent the menu from auto flipping positions
offset
Number or String0
popper-opts
Object{}Additional configuration to pass to Popper.js
right
BooleanfalseAlign the right edge of the menu with the right of the button
role
String'menu'Sets the ARIA attribute `role` to a specific value
text
StringText to place in the toggle element (link)
toggle-class
Array or Object or StringCSS class (or classes) to add to the toggle element (link)

Caution: Props that support HTML strings (*-html) can be vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks when passed raw user supplied values. You must properly sanitize the user input first!

Slots

Name
Scoped
Description
button-content NoCan be used to implement custom text with icons and more styling
default Optionally scoped default slot for dropdown menu content

Events

Event
Arguments
Description
hidden Emitted when dropdown is hidden
hide
  1. bvEvent - BvEvent object. Call bvEvent.preventDefault() to cancel hide
Emitted just before dropdown is hidden. Cancelable
show
  1. bvEvent - BvEvent object. Call bvEvent.preventDefault() to cancel show
Emitted just before dropdown is shown. Cancelable
shown Emitted when dropdown is shown
toggle Emitted when toggle button is clicked

Importing individual components

You can import individual components into your project via the following named exports:

Component
Named Export
Import Path
<b-nav>BNavbootstrap-vue
<b-nav-item>BNavItembootstrap-vue
<b-nav-text>BNavTextbootstrap-vue
<b-nav-form>BNavFormbootstrap-vue
<b-nav-item-dropdown>BNavItemDropdownbootstrap-vue

Example:

import { BNav } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.component('b-nav', BNav)

Importing as a Vue.js plugin

This plugin includes all of the above listed individual components. Plugins also include any component aliases.

Named Export
Import Path
NavPluginbootstrap-vue

This plugin also automatically includes the following plugins:

  • DropdownPlugin

Example:

import { NavPlugin } from 'bootstrap-vue'
Vue.use(NavPlugin)