bootstrap tutorial - How to open Bootstrap dropdown menu on hover rather than click - bootstrap examples - bootstrap templates - bootstrap 3

Answer: Use the jQuery hover() method

By default, to open or display the dropdown menu in Bootstrap you have to click on the trigger element. However, if you want to show the dropdown on mouseover instead of click you can do it with little customization using the CSS and jQuery.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Activate Bootstrap Dropdown with Hover - Wikitechy</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/bootstrap-theme.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/custom.css">
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
@media screen and (min-width: 768px){
  .dropdown:hover .dropdown-menu, .btn-group:hover .dropdown-menu{
        display: block;
    }
    .dropdown-menu{
        margin-top: 0;
    }
    .dropdown-toggle{
        margin-bottom: 2px;
    }
    .navbar .dropdown-toggle, .nav-tabs .dropdown-toggle{
        margin-bottom: 0;
    }
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
    $(".dropdown, .btn-group").hover(function(){
        var dropdownMenu = $(this).children(".dropdown-menu");
        if(dropdownMenu.is(":visible")){
            dropdownMenu.parent().toggleClass("open");
        }
    });
});     
</script>
</head>
<body>
<!--Navbar with dropdown menu-->
<nav id="myNavbar" class="navbar navbar-default" role="navigation">
    <!-- Brand and toggle get grouped for better mobile display -->
    <div class="container">
        <div class="navbar-header">
            <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#bs-example-navbar-collapse-1">
                <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            </button>
            <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Brand</a>
        </div>
        <!-- Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling -->
        <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="bs-example-navbar-collapse-1">
            <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Profile</a></li>
                <li class="dropdown">
                    <a href="#" data-toggle="dropdown" class="dropdown-toggle">Messages <b class="caret"></b></a>
                    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                        <li><a href="#">Inbox</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Drafts</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Sent Items</a></li>
                        <li class="divider"></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Trash</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</nav>
</body>
</html>

click below button to copy the code. By - Bootstrap tutorial - team

As you can see in the above example, we've used the CSS media query for showing the dropdown menu on mouse hover only on small, medium and large devices, because it is not appropriate for the extra small devices like cell-phones. We've also used some jQuery to add .open class to highlight the active dropdown element.

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