Allow click on twitter bootstrap dropdown toggle link?

We have setup the twitter bootstrap dropdown to work on hover (as opposed to click [yes we are aware of the no hover on touch devices]). But we want to be able to have the main link work when we click it.

By default twitter bootstrap blocks it, so how can we re-enable it?


Just add disabled as a class on your anchor:

<a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
    Dropdown <b class="caret"></b></a>

So all together something like:

<ul class="nav">
    <li class="dropdown">
        <a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
            Dropdown <b class="caret"></b>
        </a>
        <ul class="dropdown-menu">
            <li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
</ul>

Since there is not really an answer that works (selected answer disables dropdown), or overrides using javascript, here goes.

This is all html and css fix (uses two <a> tags):

<ul class="nav">
 <li class="dropdown dropdown-li">
    <a class="dropdown-link" href="http://google.com">Dropdown</a>
    <a class="dropdown-caret dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
        <li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
    </ul>
 </li>
</ul>

Now here's the CSS you need.

.dropdown-li {
    display:inline-block !important;
}
.dropdown-link {
    display:inline-block !important; 
    padding-right:4px !important;
}
.dropdown-caret {
    display:inline-block !important; 
    padding-left:4px !important;
}

Assuming you will want the both <a> tags to highlight on hover of either one, you will also need to override bootstrap, you might play around with the following:

.nav > li:hover {
    background-color: #f67a47; /*hover background color*/
}
.nav > li:hover > a {
    color: white; /*hover text color*/
}
.nav > li:hover > ul > a {
    color: black; /*dropdown item text color*/
}

For those of you complaining about "the submenus don't drop down", I solved it this way, which looks clean to me:

1) Besides your

<a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
     Dropdown <b class="caret"></b>
</a>

put a new

<a class="dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>

and remove the <b class="caret"></b> tag, so it will look like

<a class="dropdown-toggle disabled" href="http://google.com">
Dropdown</a><a class="dropdown-toggle"><b class="caret"></b></a>

2) Style them with the following css rules:

.caret1 {
    position: absolute !important; top: 0; right: 0;
}

.dropdown-toggle.disabled {
    padding-right: 40px;
}

The style in .caret1 class is for positioning it absolutely inside your li, at the right corner.

The second style is for adding some padding to the right of the dropdown to place the caret, preventing overlapping the text of the menu item.

Now you have a nice responsive menu item which looks nice both in desktop and mobile versions and that is both clickable and dropdownable depending on whether you click on the text or on the caret.