How to Display Selected Item in Bootstrap Button Dropdown Title

I am using the bootstrap Dropdown component in my application like this:

<div class="btn-group">
    <button class="btn">Please Select From List</button>
    <button class="btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
        <span class="caret"></span>
    </button>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu">
       <li><a tabindex="-1" href="#">Item I</a></li>
       <li><a tabindex="-1" href="#">Item II</a></li>
       <li><a tabindex="-1" href="#">Item III</a></li>
       <li class="divider"></li>
       <li><a tabindex="-1" href="#">Other</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

I would like to display the selected item as the btn label. In other words, replace "Please Select From List" with the list item that has been selected("Item I", "Item II", "Item III").

Solution 1:

As far as i understood your issue is that you want to change the text of the button with the clicking linked text, if so you can try this one: http://jsbin.com/owuyix/4/edit

 $(function(){

    $(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){

      $(".btn:first-child").text($(this).text());
      $(".btn:first-child").val($(this).text());

   });

});

As per your comment:

this doesn't work for me when I have lists item <li> populated through ajax call.

so you have to delegate the event to the closest static parent with .on() jQuery method:

 $(function(){

    $(".dropdown-menu").on('click', 'li a', function(){
      $(".btn:first-child").text($(this).text());
      $(".btn:first-child").val($(this).text());
   });

});

Here event is delegated to static parent $(".dropdown-menu"), although you can delegate the event to the $(document) too because it is always available.

Solution 2:

Updated for Bootstrap 3.3.4:

This will allow you to have different display text and data value for each element. It will also persist the caret on selection.

JS:

$(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){
  $(this).parents(".dropdown").find('.btn').html($(this).text() + ' <span class="caret"></span>');
  $(this).parents(".dropdown").find('.btn').val($(this).data('value'));
});

HTML:

<div class="dropdown">
  <button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="true">
    Dropdown
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu1">
    <li><a href="#" data-value="action">Action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="another action">Another action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="something else here">Something else here</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="separated link">Separated link</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

JS Fiddle Example

Solution 3:

I was able to slightly improve Jai's answer to work in the case of you having more than one button dropdown with a pretty good presentation that works with bootstrap 3:

Code for The Button

<div class="btn-group">
  <button type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
    Option: <span class="selection">Option 1</span><span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
    <li><a href="#">Option 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Option 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Option 3</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

JQuery Snippet

$(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){

  $(this).parents(".btn-group").find('.selection').text($(this).text());
  $(this).parents(".btn-group").find('.selection').val($(this).text());

});

I also added a 5px margin-right to the "selection" class.

Solution 4:

This single jQuery function will do all you need.

$( document ).ready(function() {
    $('.dropdown').each(function (key, dropdown) {
        var $dropdown = $(dropdown);
        $dropdown.find('.dropdown-menu a').on('click', function () {
            $dropdown.find('button').text($(this).text()).append(' <span class="caret"></span>');
        });
    });
});

Solution 5:

Another simple way (Bootstrap 4) to work with multiple dropdowns

    $('.dropdown-item').on('click',  function(){
        var btnObj = $(this).parent().siblings('button');
        $(btnObj).text($(this).text());
        $(btnObj).val($(this).text());
    });