Bootstrap WP NavWalker Hack

Hack to override NavWalker behavior – changing URLs to to hashtags if menu item has sub menus.

Simple, CSS only solution:

.dropdown:hover>.dropdown-menu {
  display: block;
}

When clicked, it will still get the class show toggled to it (and will remain open when no longer hovered).

---

To get around this properly is to use events and properties reserved to pointer based devices: jQuery’s mouseenter, mouseleave and :hover. Should work smoothly, intuitively, while not interfering at all with how the dropdown works on touch based devices. Try it out, let me know if it works for you:

Complete jQuery solution (touch untouched) for v.4.1.2 and above:

function toggleDropdown (e) {
  const _d = $(e.target).closest('.dropdown'),
    _m = $('.dropdown-menu', _d);
  setTimeout(function(){
    const shouldOpen = e.type !== 'click' && _d.is(':hover');
    _m.toggleClass('show', shouldOpen);
    _d.toggleClass('show', shouldOpen);
    $('[data-toggle="dropdown"]', _d).attr('aria-expanded', shouldOpen);
  }, e.type === 'mouseleave' ? 300 : 0);
}

$('body')
  .on('mouseenter mouseleave','.dropdown',toggleDropdown)
  .on('click', '.dropdown-menu a', toggleDropdown);

Full demo implementation:

Javascript

function toggleDropdown (e) {
  const _d = $(e.target).closest('.dropdown'),
      _m = $('.dropdown-menu', _d);
  setTimeout(function(){
    const shouldOpen = e.type !== 'click' && _d.is(':hover');
    _m.toggleClass('show', shouldOpen);
    _d.toggleClass('show', shouldOpen);
    $('[data-toggle="dropdown"]', _d).attr('aria-expanded', shouldOpen);
  }, e.type === 'mouseleave' ? 300 : 0);
}

$('body')
  .on('mouseenter mouseleave','.dropdown',toggleDropdown)
  .on('click', '.dropdown-menu a', toggleDropdown);

/* not needed, prevents page reload for SO example on menu link clicked */
$('.dropdown a').on('click tap', e => e.preventDefault())

CSS

.dropdown:hover>.dropdown-menu {
  display: block;
}

HTML

<link href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.3/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
  <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
  <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-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 mr-auto">
      <li class="nav-item active">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></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-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false">
          Dropdown
        </a>
        <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
          <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a>
          <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a>
          <div class="dropdown-divider"></div>
          <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
        </div>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#">Disabled</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
    <form class="form-inline my-2 my-lg-0">
      <input class="form-control mr-sm-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
      <button class="btn btn-outline-success my-2 my-sm-0" type="submit">Search</button>
    </form>
  </div>
</nav>

Echoed from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42183672/how-to-implement-a-navbar-dropdown-hover-in-bootstrap-v4/42183824#42183824

Here’s another complementary direct hack to the class:

Open ‘class-wp-bootstrap-navwalker.php’ file,
Find if condition with “0 === $depth && $args->depth > 1”, and change code based on your needs.

Like, $atts[‘href’] = !empty($item->url)? $item->url : ‘#’;

https://discourse.roots.io/t/navwalker-parent-menu-not-clickable-how-to-make-navwalker-open-sub-menu-on-hover-instead-of-onclick/17456