How to append a single dropdown menu to body in Bootstrap

Question

I\'ve seen the documentation for the dropdown menu as component and separately using javascript.

I\'m wondering if it is possible to add a single dropdown menu in the we

Answer 1

Not sure about bootstrap 3, but if you're using bootstrap 4, you can add "data-boundary="window" to the dropdown trigger. It will append it to the body and then you can position it using absolute positioning.

Answer 2

For those like me who have the same issue using Angular 6+ and Bootstrap 4+, I wrote a small directive to append the dropdown to the body :

events.ts

/**
 * Add a jQuery listener for a specified HTML event.
 * When an event is received, emit it again in the standard way, and not using jQuery (like Bootstrap does).
 *
 * @param event Event to relay
 * @param node HTML node (default is body)
 *
 * https://stackoverflow.com/a/24212373/2611798
 * https://stackoverflow.com/a/46458318/2611798
 */
export function eventRelay(event: any, node: HTMLElement = document.body) {
    $(node).on(event, (evt: any) => {
        const customEvent = document.createEvent("Event");
        customEvent.initEvent(event, true, true);
        evt.target.dispatchEvent(customEvent);
    });
}

dropdown-body.directive.ts

import {Directive, ElementRef, AfterViewInit, Renderer2} from "@angular/core";
import {fromEvent} from "rxjs";

import {eventRelay} from "../shared/dom/events";

/**
 * Directive used to display a dropdown by attaching it as a body child and not a child of the current node.
 *
 * Sources :
 * <ul>
 *  <li>https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.1/components/dropdowns/</li>
 *  <li>https://stackoverflow.com/a/42498168/2611798</li>
 *  <li>https://github.com/ng-bootstrap/ng-bootstrap/issues/1012</li>
 * </ul>
 */
@Directive({
    selector: "[appDropdownBody]"
})
export class DropdownBodyDirective implements AfterViewInit {

    /**
     * Dropdown
     */
    private dropdown: HTMLElement;

    /**
     * Dropdown menu
     */
    private dropdownMenu: HTMLElement;

    constructor(private readonly element: ElementRef, private readonly renderer: Renderer2) {
    }

    ngAfterViewInit() {
        this.dropdown = this.element.nativeElement;
        this.dropdownMenu = this.dropdown.querySelector(".dropdown-menu");

        // Catch the events using observables
        eventRelay("shown.bs.dropdown", this.element.nativeElement);
        eventRelay("hidden.bs.dropdown", this.element.nativeElement);

        fromEvent(this.element.nativeElement, "shown.bs.dropdown")
            .subscribe(() => this.appendDropdownMenu(document.body));
        fromEvent(this.element.nativeElement, "hidden.bs.dropdown")
            .subscribe(() => this.appendDropdownMenu(this.dropdown));
    }

    /**
     * Append the dropdown to the "parent" node.
     *
     * @param parent New dropdown parent node
     */
    protected appendDropdownMenu(parent: HTMLElement): void {
        this.renderer.appendChild(parent, this.dropdownMenu);
    }
}

dropdown-body.directive.spec.ts

import {Component, DebugElement} from "@angular/core";
import {By} from "@angular/platform-browser";
import {from} from "rxjs";

import {TestBed, ComponentFixture, async} from "@angular/core/testing";

import {DropdownBodyDirective} from "./dropdown-body.directive";

@Component({
    template: `<div class="btn-group dropdown" appDropdownBody>
        <button id="openBtn" data-toggle="dropdown">open</button>
        <div class="dropdown-menu">
            <button class="dropdown-item">btn0</button>
            <button class="dropdown-item">btn1</button>
        </div>
    </div>`
})
class DropdownContainerTestingComponent {
}

describe("DropdownBodyDirective", () => {

    let component: DropdownContainerTestingComponent;
    let fixture: ComponentFixture<DropdownContainerTestingComponent>;
    let dropdown: DebugElement;
    let dropdownMenu: DebugElement;

    beforeEach(async(() => {
        TestBed.configureTestingModule({
            declarations: [
                DropdownContainerTestingComponent,
                DropdownBodyDirective,
            ]
        });
    }));

    beforeEach(() => {
        fixture = TestBed.createComponent(DropdownContainerTestingComponent);
        component = fixture.componentInstance;
        dropdown = fixture.debugElement.query(By.css(".dropdown"));
        dropdownMenu = fixture.debugElement.query(By.css(".dropdown-menu"));
    });

    it("should create an instance", () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();
        expect(component).toBeTruthy();

        expect(dropdownMenu.parent).toEqual(dropdown);
    });

    it("not shown", () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();

        expect(dropdownMenu.parent).toEqual(dropdown);
    });

    it("show then hide", () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();
        const nbChildrenBeforeShow = document.body.children.length;

        expect(dropdownMenu.parent).toEqual(dropdown);

        // Simulate the dropdown display event
        dropdown.nativeElement.dispatchEvent(new Event("shown.bs.dropdown"));
        fixture.detectChanges();

        from(fixture.whenStable()).subscribe(() => {
            // Check the dropdown is attached to the body
            expect(document.body.children.length).toEqual(nbChildrenBeforeShow + 1);
            expect(dropdownMenu.nativeElement.parentNode.outerHTML)
                .toBe(document.body.outerHTML);

            // Hide the dropdown
            dropdown.nativeElement.dispatchEvent(new Event("hidden.bs.dropdown"));
            fixture.detectChanges();

            from(fixture.whenStable()).subscribe(() => {
                // Check the dropdown is back to its original node
                expect(document.body.children.length).toEqual(nbChildrenBeforeShow);
                expect(dropdownMenu.nativeElement.parentNode.outerHTML)
                    .toBe(dropdown.nativeElement.outerHTML);
            });
        });
    });
});

Answer 3

As the bootstrap documents say, there are no options for dropdown menus... This is sad, but it means there is currently not a 'bootstrap' solution for the functionality you want. There is now, however, a solution in the Angular-UI/Bootstrap kit if you're using that. The ticket you referenced is closed because it was finally added to the Angular-UI as of July 15th 2015.

All you have to do is 'Add dropdown-append-to-body to the dropdown element to append to the inner dropdown-menu to the body. This is useful when the dropdown button is inside a div with overflow: hidden, and the menu would otherwise be hidden.' (reference)

<div class="btn-group" dropdown dropdown-append-to-body>
  <button type="button" class="btn btn-primary dropdown-toggle" dropdown-toggle>Dropdown on Body <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
    <li><a href="#">Action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Another action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Something else here</a></li>
    <li class="divider"></li>
    <li><a href="#">Separated link</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

Hope this helps!

---

EDIT

In an effort to answer another SO question, I found a solution that works pretty well if you weren't using Angular-UI. It may be 'hacky', but it doesn't break the bootstrap menu functionality, and it seems to play well with most use cases I've used it for.

So I'll leave a few fiddles in case anyone else sees this and is interested. The first illustrates why the use of a body appended menu might be nice, the second shows the working solution:

Problem FIDDLE

The problem: a select dropdown within a panel body

<div class="panel panel-default">
  <div class="panel-body">
    <div class="btn-group">
      <button type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
        <span data-bind="label">Select One</span>&nbsp;<span class="caret"></span>
      </button>
      <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
        <li><a href="#">Item 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Another item</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">This is a longer item that will not fit properly</a></li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Solution FIDDLE

(function () {
    // hold onto the drop down menu                                             
    var dropdownMenu;

    // and when you show it, move it to the body                                     
    $(window).on('show.bs.dropdown', function (e) {

        // grab the menu        
        dropdownMenu = $(e.target).find('.dropdown-menu');

        // detach it and append it to the body
        $('body').append(dropdownMenu.detach());

        // grab the new offset position
        var eOffset = $(e.target).offset();

        // make sure to place it where it would normally go (this could be improved)
        dropdownMenu.css({
            'display': 'block',
                'top': eOffset.top + $(e.target).outerHeight(),
                'left': eOffset.left
        });
    });

    // and when you hide it, reattach the drop down, and hide it normally                                                   
    $(window).on('hide.bs.dropdown', function (e) {
        $(e.target).append(dropdownMenu.detach());
        dropdownMenu.hide();
    });
})();

---

EDIT I finally found where I originally found this solution. Gotta give credit where credit is due!