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Navbar

Documentation and examples for Boosted’s powerful, responsive navigation header, the navbar. Includes support for branding, navigation, and more, including support for our collapse plugin.

On this page

How it works

Here’s what you need to know before getting started with the navbar:

Navbars require a wrapping .navbar with .navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl} for responsive collapsing and color scheme classes.
Navbars and their contents are fluid by default. Change the container to limit their horizontal width in different ways.
Use our spacing and flex utility classes for controlling spacing and alignment within navbars.
Navbars are responsive by default, but you can easily modify them to change that. Responsive behavior depends on our Collapse JavaScript plugin.
Ensure accessibility by using a <nav> element or, if using a more generic element such as a <div>, add a role="navigation" to every navbar to explicitly identify it as a landmark region for users of assistive technologies.
Indicate the current item by using aria-current="page" for the current page or aria-current="true" for the current item in a set.

The animation effect of this component is dependent on the prefers-reduced-motion media query. See the reduced motion section of our accessibility documentation.

Supported content

Navbars come with built-in support for a handful of sub-components. Choose from the following as needed:

.navbar-brand for Orange logo, and your product or project name.
.navbar-nav for a full-height and lightweight navigation (including support for dropdowns).
.navbar-toggler for use with our collapse plugin and other navigation toggling behaviors.
Flex and spacing utilities for any form controls and actions.
.navbar-text for adding vertically centered strings of text.
.collapse.navbar-collapse for grouping and hiding navbar contents by a parent breakpoint.
Add an optional .navbar-scroll to set a max-height and scroll expanded navbar content.

Here’s an example of all the sub-components included in a responsive light-themed navbar that automatically collapses at the lg (large) breakpoint.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
      <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item dropdown">
          <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
            Dropdown
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
            <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link disabled">Disabled</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <form class="d-flex">
        <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
        <button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Search</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

This example uses background (bg-light) and spacing (my-2, my-lg-0, me-sm-0, my-sm-0) utility classes.

Brand

The .navbar-brand can be applied to most elements, but an anchor works best, as some elements might require utility classes or custom styles.

<!-- As a link -->
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      <span class="h1">Navbar</span>
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

<!-- As a heading -->
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <span class="navbar-brand">
        <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
        <span class="h1">Navbar</span>
    </span>
  </div>
</nav>

Nav

Navbar navigation links build on our .nav options with their own modifier class and require the use of toggler classes for proper responsive styling. Navigation in navbars will also grow to occupy as much horizontal space as possible to keep your navbar contents securely aligned.

Add the .active class on .nav-link to indicate the current page.

Please note that you should also add the aria-current attribute on the active .nav-link.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
      <ul class="navbar-nav">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link disabled">Disabled</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

And because we use classes for our navs, you can avoid the list-based approach entirely if you like.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-controls="navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavAltMarkup">
      <div class="navbar-nav">
        <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
        <a class="nav-link disabled">Disabled</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

You can also use dropdowns in your navbar. Dropdown menus require a wrapping element for positioning, so be sure to use separate and nested elements for .nav-item and .nav-link as shown below.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarNavDropdown" aria-controls="navbarNavDropdown" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavDropdown">
      <ul class="navbar-nav">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item dropdown">
          <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdownMenuLink" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
            Dropdown link
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdownMenuLink">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

Forms

Place various form controls and components within a navbar:

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <form class="d-flex">
      <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
      <button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Search</button>
    </form>
  </div>
</nav>

Immediate child elements of .navbar use flex layout and will default to justify-content: space-between. Use additional flex utilities as needed to adjust this behavior.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <form class="d-flex">
      <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
      <button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Search</button>
    </form>
  </div>
</nav>

Input groups work, too. If your navbar is an entire form, or mostly a form, you can use the <form> element as the container and save some HTML. Applies to the option above and below this copy.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <form class="container-fluid">
    <div class="input-group">
      <span class="input-group-text" id="basic-addon1">@</span>
      <input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Username" aria-label="Username" aria-describedby="basic-addon1">
    </div>
  </form>
</nav>

Various buttons are supported as part of these navbar forms, too. This is also a great reminder that vertical alignment utilities can be used to align different sized elements.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <form class="container-fluid justify-content-start">
    <button class="btn btn-primary me-2" type="button">Main button</button>
    <button class="btn btn-sm btn-primary" type="button">Smaller button</button>
  </form>
</nav>

Text

Navbars may contain bits of text with the help of .navbar-text. This class adjusts vertical alignment and horizontal spacing for strings of text.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <span class="navbar-text">
      Navbar text with an inline element
    </span>
  </div>
</nav>

Mix and match with other components and utilities as needed.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarText" aria-controls="navbarText" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarText">
      <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <span class="navbar-text">
        Navbar text with an inline element
      </span>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

Color schemes

Theming the navbar has never been easier thanks to the combination of theming classes and background-color utilities. Choose from .navbar-light for use with light background colors, or .navbar-dark for dark background colors. Then, customize with .bg-* utilities.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <!-- Navbar content -->
</nav>

<nav class="navbar navbar-light bg-white">
  <!-- Navbar content -->
</nav>

Containers

Although it’s not required, you can wrap a navbar in a .container to center it on a page–though note that an inner container is still required. Or you can add a container inside the .navbar to only center the contents of a fixed or static top navbar.

<div class="container">
  <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
    <div class="container-fluid">
      <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
        <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      </a>
    </div>
  </nav>
</div>

Use any of the responsive containers to change how wide the content in your navbar is presented.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-md">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

Placement

Use our position utilities to place navbars in non-static positions. Choose from fixed to the top, fixed to the bottom, or stickied to the top (scrolls with the page until it reaches the top, then stays there). Fixed navbars use position: fixed, meaning they’re pulled from the normal flow of the DOM and may require custom CSS (e.g., padding-top on the <body>) to prevent overlap with other elements.

Also note that .sticky-top uses position: sticky, which isn’t fully supported in every browser.

<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      <span>Default</span>
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

<nav class="navbar fixed-top navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      <span>Fixed top</span>
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

<nav class="navbar fixed-bottom navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      <span>Fixed bottom</span>
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

<nav class="navbar sticky-top navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
      <img src="/docs/5.1/assets/brand/orange-logo.svg" width="50" height="50" role="img" alt="Boosted" loading="lazy">
      <span>Sticky top</span>
    </a>
  </div>
</nav>

Scrolling

Add .navbar-nav-scroll to a .navbar-nav (or other navbar sub-component) to enable vertical scrolling within the toggleable contents of a collapsed navbar. By default, scrolling kicks in at 75vh (or 75% of the viewport height), but you can override that with the local CSS custom property --bs-navbar-height or custom styles. At larger viewports when the navbar is expanded, content will appear as it does in a default navbar.

Please note that this behavior comes with a potential drawback of overflow—when setting overflow-y: auto (required to scroll the content here), overflow-x is the equivalent of auto, which will crop some horizontal content.

Here’s an example navbar using .navbar-nav-scroll with style="--bs-scroll-height: 100px;", with some extra margin utilities for optimum spacing.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar scroll</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarScroll" aria-controls="navbarScroll" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarScroll">
      <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto my-2 my-lg-0 navbar-nav-scroll" style="--bs-scroll-height: 100px;">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item dropdown">
          <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarScrollingDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
            Link
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarScrollingDropdown">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
            <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link disabled">Link</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <form class="d-flex">
        <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
        <button class="btn btn-success" type="submit">Search</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

Responsive behaviors

Navbars can use .navbar-toggler, .navbar-collapse, and .navbar-expand{-sm|-md|-lg|-xl|-xxl} classes to determine when their content collapses behind a button. In combination with other utilities, you can easily choose when to show or hide particular elements.

For navbars that never collapse, add the .navbar-expand class on the navbar. For navbars that always collapse, don’t add any .navbar-expand class.

External content

Sometimes you want to use the collapse plugin to trigger a container element for content that structurally sits outside of the .navbar . Because our plugin works on the id and data-bs-target matching, that’s easily done!

Collapsed content

Toggleable via the navbar brand.

<div class="collapse" id="navbarToggleExternalContent">
  <div class="bg-dark p-4">
    <h5 class="text-white h4">Collapsed content</h5>
    <span class="text-muted">Toggleable via the navbar brand.</span>
  </div>
</div>
<nav class="navbar navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarToggleExternalContent" aria-controls="navbarToggleExternalContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
  </div>
</nav>

When you do this, we recommend including additional JavaScript to move the focus programmatically to the container when it is opened. Otherwise, keyboard users and users of assistive technologies will likely have a hard time finding the newly revealed content - particularly if the container that was opened comes before the toggler in the document’s structure. We also recommend making sure that the toggler has the aria-controls attribute, pointing to the id of the content container. In theory, this allows assistive technology users to jump directly from the toggler to the container it controls–but support for this is currently quite patchy.

Sass

Variables

$navbar-padding-y:                  add($spacer, $spacer * .25);
$navbar-padding-x:                  null;
$navbar-padding-bottom:             add($spacer * .25, $border-width); // Boosted mod

$navbar-nav-link-padding-x:         $nav-link-padding-x * .5;

// Boosted mod: Orange master logo & minimizing behavior
$navbar-icon-size:                     $spacer * 1.5;
//$navbar-height:                        6.25rem;
$navbar-brand-logo-height:             add($spacer * 1.5, $spacer);
$navbar-brand-logo-minimized-height:   $spacer * 1.5;
//$navbar-supra-padding-y:               $navbar-brand-logo-height / 10;
//$navbar-supra-padding-x:               $spacer * .25 * 1.5;
$navbar-transition-duration:           $transition-duration;
$navbar-transition-timing-function:    $transition-timing;
$navbar-transition:                    padding-top $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function, padding-bottom $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function, $transition-focus;
$navbar-brand-transition:              margin $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function, $transition-focus;
$navbar-brand-logo-transition:         width $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function, height $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function;
$navbar-active-transition:             bottom $navbar-transition-duration $navbar-transition-timing-function;
// End mod

$navbar-brand-font-size:            $font-size-base;
// Compute the navbar-brand padding-y so the navbar-brand will have the same height as navbar-text and nav-link
$navbar-brand-padding-y:            null;
$navbar-brand-margin-end:           $spacer * .25;

$navbar-toggler-padding-y:          .5rem;
$navbar-toggler-padding-x:          .5rem;
$navbar-toggler-font-size:          $font-size-base;
$navbar-toggler-border-radius:      $btn-border-radius;
$navbar-toggler-focus-width:        null;
$navbar-toggler-transition:         $transition-focus;

$navbar-dark-color:                  $white;
$navbar-dark-hover-color:            $primary;
$navbar-dark-active-color:           $primary;
$navbar-dark-disabled-color:         $gray-400;
$navbar-dark-toggler-border-color:   transparent;

$navbar-light-color:                 $black;
$navbar-light-hover-color:           $accessible-orange;
$navbar-light-active-color:          $accessible-orange;
$navbar-light-disabled-color:        $gray-500;
$navbar-light-toggler-border-color:  null;

$navbar-light-brand-color:          $navbar-light-active-color;
$navbar-light-brand-hover-color:    $navbar-light-active-color;
$navbar-dark-brand-color:           inherit;
$navbar-dark-brand-hover-color:     $navbar-dark-active-color;

Loop

Responsive navbar expand/collapse classes (e.g., .navbar-expand-lg) are combined with the $breakpoints map and generated through a loop in scss/_navbar.scss.

// Generate series of `.navbar-expand-*` responsive classes for configuring
// where your navbar collapses.
.navbar-expand {
  @each $breakpoint in map-keys($grid-breakpoints) {
    $next: breakpoint-next($breakpoint, $grid-breakpoints);
    $infix: breakpoint-infix($next, $grid-breakpoints);

    // stylelint-disable-next-line scss/selector-no-union-class-name
    &#{$infix} {
      @include media-breakpoint-up($next) {
        flex-wrap: nowrap;
        justify-content: flex-start;
        padding-top: $navbar-padding-y; // Boosted mod
        padding-bottom: $navbar-padding-bottom; // Boosted mod

        .navbar-nav {
          flex-direction: row;

          .dropdown-menu {
            position: absolute;
          }

          .nav-link {
            padding-right: $navbar-nav-link-padding-x;
            padding-left: $navbar-nav-link-padding-x;

            // Boosted mod
            &.active::before {
              right: $nav-link-padding-y;
              bottom: -$navbar-padding-bottom;
              left: $nav-link-padding-y;
            }
          }

          .nav-item {
            font-size: $font-size-base;
            border: 0;
          }
          // End mod
        }

        // Boosted mod
        .navbar-brand {
          align-self: flex-end;
          margin: 0 $spacer subtract($spacer, $border-width) 0;

          img {
            width: $navbar-brand-logo-height;
            height: $navbar-brand-logo-height;
          }
        }
        // End mod

        .navbar-nav-scroll {
          overflow: visible;
        }

        .navbar-collapse {
          display: flex !important; // stylelint-disable-line declaration-no-important
          flex-basis: auto;
        }

        .navbar-toggler {
          display: none;
        }

        // Boosted mod: Offcanvas navbar is not allowed
      }
    }
  }
}