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How To Set/Keep 'active' class on link or li when redirect to another page?

In my View i have navigation but problem is when i click on link and redirect me to that page it lose active class and it again become the home to active. Can anyone please help me or point me in the right direction!
Thanks in advance.
View:
<!-- Side Navbar -->
<nav class="side-navbar shrinked">
<!-- Sidebar Navidation Menus-->
<ul class="list-unstyled">
<li class="active"> <i class="icon-home"></i>Home </li>
<li> <i class=" icon-grid"></i>EMP </li>
<li> <i class="fa fa-bar-chart"></i>User </li>
</ul>
</nav>
JavaScript:
<script>
$(function () {
$('nav.side-navbar ul li a').on('click', function () {
$(this).parent().addClass('active').siblings().removeClass('active');
});
});
</script>

When you load a new page all the code in current page is gone and all the scripts you have will run again on new page.
You need to compare the page's url to the links urls on page load.
Try the following:
$(function() {
$('nav.side-navbar ul li a').each(function() {
var isActive = this.pathname === location.pathname;
$(this).parent().toggleClass('active', isActive);
});
});

Redirecting to Different Routes using Data-Groups

I would like to redirect about and contacts to their "proper page" when they get clicked, e.g. clicking on about should redirect to about.html.
It does work quite well with magazine, books and talks, since I just want them to redirect to index.html when clicked.
This is my html code:
<div class="navbar-collapse collapse">
<ul id="filter">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li><a href="#" data-group="magazine">
<span class="span-text">Magazine</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-group="books">
<span class="span-text">Books</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-group="talks">
<span class="span-text">Talks</span></a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">
<span class="span-text">About</span></a></li>
<li><a href=mailto:info#enyamoore.com>
<span class="span-text">Contact</span></a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
Js:
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
/* initialize shuffle plugin */
var $grid = $('#grid');
$grid.shuffle({
itemSelector: '.item' // the selector for the items in the grid
});
/* reshuffle when user clicks a filter item */
$('#filter a').click(function (e) {
// set active class
$('#filter a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
// get group name from clicked item
var groupName = $(this).attr('data-group');
// reshuffle grid
$grid.shuffle('shuffle', groupName );
});
});
</script>
Have you any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

This is should be a simple fix, you only have to put a back slash in front of the page. Note that #/about.html will not work. For the "using data-groups" part could you be a bit more specific? That might affect this answer.

Trigger active class of parent link when on child link page

I have the javascript code below to put my parent menu item to class active when I'm on the page for example https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ it works. But I also wanna put the parent menu item to class active when I'm at the subpages/child menu item like https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask/, may I know how to do that?
Example I'm at this page https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask/, how to I get the URL like this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/, without the /ask so that I can have the parent menu item (question) to be in active class when I'm at the child page of question which is (ask).
The code below only works if I'm at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/, but if I'm at the child page https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask/, parent link (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/) doesn't change to active class.
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li><h5>Home</h5></li>
<li class="dropdown">
<h5>Online<span class="caret"></span></h5>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
<li>History</li>
<li>Science</li>
<li>Mathematics</li>
<li>English</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<script type="text/javascript">
var url = window.parent.location.href;
$('ul.nav a[href="'+ url +'"]').parent().addClass('active');
$('ul.nav a').filter(function() {
return this.href == url;
}).parent().addClass('active');
</script>

You can use parents() to match the parent and all ancestors. Give it a selector argument to restrict to just the li tags.
$('ul.nav a').filter(function() {
return this.href == url;
}).parents('li').addClass('active');

Bootstrap navbar Active State not working

I have bootstrap v3.
I use the class="active" on mynavbar and it does not switch when I press menu items. I know how to do this with jQuery and build a click function but I'm thinking this functionality should be included in bootstrap? So maybe it is a JavaScript issue?
Here is my header with my js/css/bootstrap files I have included:
<!-- Bootstrap CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href= "/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.10.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href= "/stylesheets/styles.css" />
<!--jQuery -->
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js">
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<!-- Bootstrap JS -->
<script src="/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bootstrap/js/bootstrap-collapse.js"></script>
<script src="/bootstrap/js/bootstrap-transition.js"></script>
Here is my navbar code:
<nav class="navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="navbar-header">
<button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbarCollapse">
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
</button>
<a class="navbar-brand" href="/index.php">MyBrand</a>
</div>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse navbarCollapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
<li class="active">
Home
</li>
<li>
Links
</li>
<li>
About
</li>
<li>
Contact
</li>
<li>
Login
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
Am I setting this up right?
(On an unrelated note, but possible related? When the menu goes mobile, I click the menu button and it collapses. Pushing it again does not un-collapse it though. So this issue,. with the other, both signify wrong JavaScript setup perhaps?)

You have included the minified Bootstrap js file and collapse/transition plugins while the docs state that:
Both bootstrap.js and bootstrap.min.js contain all plugins in a single file.
Include only one.
and
For simple transition effects, include transition.js once alongside
the other JS files. If you're using the compiled (or minified)
bootstrap.js, there is no need to include this—it's already there.
So that could well be your problem for the minimize problem.
For the active class, you have to manage it yourself, but it's just a line or two.
Bootstrap 3:
$(".nav a").on("click", function(){
$(".nav").find(".active").removeClass("active");
$(this).parent().addClass("active");
});
Bootply: http://www.bootply.com/IsRfOyf0f9
Bootstrap 4:
$(".nav .nav-link").on("click", function(){
$(".nav").find(".active").removeClass("active");
$(this).addClass("active");
});

Here was my solution for switching active pages
$(document).ready(function() {
$('li.active').removeClass('active').removeAttr('aria-current');
$('a[href="' + location.pathname + '"]').closest('li').addClass('active').attr('aria-current', 'page');
});

This worked perfectly for me, because "window.location.pathname" also contains data before the real page name, e.g. directory/page.php. So the actual navbar link will only be set to active if the url contains this link.
$(document).ready(function() {
$.each($('#navbar').find('li'), function() {
$(this).toggleClass('active',
window.location.pathname.indexOf($(this).find('a').attr('href')) > -1);
});
});

With version 3.3.4 of bootstrap, on long html pages you can refer to sections of the pg. by class or id to manage the active navbar link with spy-scroll with the body element:
<body data-spy="scroll" data-target="spy-scroll-id">
The data-target will be a div with the id="spy-scroll-id"
<div id="spy-scroll-id" class="collapse navbar-collapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li class="active">Home</li>
<li>About</li>
<li>SlideShow</li>
</ul>
</div>
This should activate links by clicking without any javascript functions needed and will also automatically activate each link as you scroll through the corresponding linked sections of the page which a js onclick() will not.

All you need to do is simply add data-toggle="tab" to your link inside bootstrap navbar like this:
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li class="active"><a data-toggle="tab" href="#">Home</a></li>
<li><a data-toggle="tab" href="#">Test</a></li>
<li><a data-toggle="tab" href="#">Test2</a></li>
</ul>

If you don't use anchor links, you can use something like this:
$(document).ready(function () {
$.each($('#navbar').find('li'), function() {
$(this).toggleClass('active',
'/' + $(this).find('a').attr('href') == window.location.pathname);
});
});

With Bootstrap 4 you can use this:
$(document).ready(function() {
$(document).on('click', '.nav-item a', function (e) {
$(this).parent().addClass('active').siblings().removeClass('active');
});
});

This elegant solution did the trick for me. Any new ideas/suggestions are welcome.
$( document ).on( 'click', '.nav-list li', function ( e ) {
$( this ).addClass( 'active' ).siblings().removeClass( 'active' );
} );
You can use jQuery's "siblings()" method to keep only the accessed item active and its siblings inactive.

I use this. It's short, elegand and easy to understand.
$(document).ready(function() {
$('a[href$="' + location.pathname + '"]').addClass('active');
});

I've been struggling with this today, data-togle only worked if I'm on a single page application.
I'm not using ajax to load the content i'm actually making post request for other pages so the first js script was useless too. I solve it with this lines:
var active = window.location.pathname;
$(".nav a[href|='" + active + "']").parent().addClass("active");

Bootstrap 4: navbar Active State working, just use .navbar-nav .nav-link classes
$(function () {
// this will get the full URL at the address bar
var url = window.location.href;
// passes on every "a" tag
$(".navbar-nav .nav-link").each(function () {
// checks if its the same on the address bar
if (url == (this.href)) {
$(this).closest("li").addClass("active");
//for making parent of submenu active
$(this).closest("li").parent().parent().addClass("active");
}
});
});
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-KJ3o2DKtIkvYIK3UENzmM7KCkRr/rE9/Qpg6aAZGJwFDMVNA/GpGFF93hXpG5KkN" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js" integrity="sha384-ApNbgh9B+Y1QKtv3Rn7W3mgPxhU9K/ScQsAP7hUibX39j7fakFPskvXusvfa0b4Q" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-JZR6Spejh4U02d8jOt6vLEHfe/JQGiRRSQQxSfFWpi1MquVdAyjUar5+76PVCmYl" crossorigin="anonymous"></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">
<a class="nav-link" 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-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" href="#">Other</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>

I'm hope this will help to solve this problem.
var navlnks = document.querySelectorAll(".nav a");
Array.prototype.map.call(navlnks, function(item) {
item.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
var navlnks = document.querySelectorAll(".nav a");
Array.prototype.map.call(navlnks, function(item) {
if (item.parentNode.className == "active" || item.parentNode.className == "active open" ) {
item.parentNode.className = "";
}
});
e.currentTarget.parentNode.className = "active";
});
});

I had some pain with this, using a dynamically generated list items - WordPress Stack.
Added this and it worked:
$(document).ready(function () {
$(".current-menu-item").addClass("active");
});
Will do it on the fly.

I've been looking for a solution that i can use on bootstrap 4 navbars and other groups of links.
For one reason or another most solutions didn't work especially the ones that try to add 'active' to links onclick because of course once the link is clicked if it takes you to another page then the 'active' you added won't be there because the DOM has changed.
Many of the other solutions didn't work either because they often did not match the link or they matched more than one.
This elegant solution is fine for links that are different ie: about.php, index.php, etc...
$(function() {
$('nav a[href^="' + location.pathname.split("/")[2] + '"]').addClass('active');
});
However when it came to the same links with different query strings such as index.php?tag=a, index.php?tag=b, index.php?tag=c it would set all of them to active whichever was clicked as it's matching the pathname not the query as well.
So i tried this code which matched the pathname and the query string and it worked on all the links with query strings but when a link like index.php was clicked it would set the similar query string links active as well. This is because my function is returning an empty string if there is no query string in the link, again just matching the pathname.
$(function() {
$('nav a[href^="' + location.pathname.split("/")[2] + returnQueryString(location.href.split("?")[1]) + '"]').addClass('active');
});
/** returns a query string if there, else an empty string */
function returnQueryString (element) {
if (element === undefined)
return "";
else
return '?' + element;
}
So in the end i abandoned this route and kept it simple and wrote this.
$('.navbar a').each(function(index, element) {
//console.log(index+'-'+element.href);
//console.log(location.href);
/** look at each href in the navbar
* if it matches the location.href then set active*/
if (element.href === location.href){
//console.log("---------MATCH ON "+index+" --------");
$(element).addClass('active');
}
});
It works on all links with or without query strings because element.href and location.href both return the full path. For other menus etc you can simply change the parent class selector (navbar) for another ie:
$('.footer a').each(function(index, element)...
One last thing which also seems important and that is the js & css library's you are using however that's another post perhaps.
I hope this helps and contributes.

Vanilla JS solution for Bootstrap 5
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () {
// make all currently active items inactive
// (you can delete this block if you know that there are no active items when loading the page)
document.querySelectorAll("a.nav-link.active").forEach(li => {
li.classList.remove("active");
li.attributes.removeNamedItem("aria-current");
});
// find the link to the current page and make it active
document.querySelectorAll(`a[href="${location.pathname}"].nav-link`).forEach(a => {
a.classList.add("active");
a.setAttribute("aria-current", "page");
});
});

Class "active" is not managed out of the box with bootstrap. In your case since you're using PHP you can see:
How add class='active' to html menu with php
to assist you with a method of mostly automating it.

For bootstrap mobile menu un-collapse after clicking a item you can use this
$("ul.nav.navbar-nav li a").click(function() {
$(".navbar-collapse").removeClass("in");
});

I m using bootstrap bare theme, here is the sample navbar code. Note the class name of the element -> .nav - as this is referred in java script.
/ Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling
#bs-example-navbar-collapse-1.collapse.navbar-collapse
%ul.nav.navbar-nav
%li
%a{:href => "/demo/one"} Page One
%li
%a{:href => "/demo/two"} Page Two
%li
%a{:href => "/demo/three"} Page Three
in the view page (or partial) add this :javascript,
this needs to be executed every time page loads.
haml view snippet ->
- content_for :javascript do
:javascript
$(function () {
$.each($('.nav').find('li'), function() {
$(this).toggleClass('active',
$(this).find('a').attr('href') == window.location.pathname);
});
});
In the javascript debugger make sure you have value of 'href' attribute matches with window.location.pathname. This is slightly different than the solution by #Zitrax which helped me fixing my issue.

For AngularJS, you can use ng-class with a function like this:
HTML ->
<nav class="navbar navbar-default" ng-controller="NavCtrl as vm">
<div class="container">
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="bs-example-navbar-collapse-1">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav" >
<li ng-class="vm.Helper.UpdateTabActive('Home')"><a href="#" ng-click>Home</a></li>
<li ng-class="vm.Helper.UpdateTabActive('About')">About</li>
<li ng-class="vm.Helper.UpdateTabActive('Contact')">Contact</li>
</ul>
</div>
</nav>
And controller
app.controller('NavCtrl', ['$scope', function($scope) {
var vm = this;
vm.Helper = {
UpdateTabActive: function(sTab){
return window.location.hash && window.location.hash.toLowerCase() == ("#/" + sTab).toLowerCase() ? 'active' : '';
}
}
}]);
If you are using $location, then there won't be hash. So you can extract the required string from URL using $location
Following will not work in all cases -->
Using a scope variable like following will work only when clicked, but if the transition is done using $state.transitionTo or window.location or manually updating the URL, the Tab value will not be updated
<ul class="nav navbar-nav" ng-init="Tab='Home'">
<li ng-class="Tab == 'Home' ? 'active' : ''">Home</li>
<li ng-class="Tab == 'About' ? 'active' : ''">About</li>
</ul>

Add this JavaScript on your main js file.
$(".navbar a").on("click", function(){
$(".navbar").find(".active").removeClass("active");
$(this).parent().addClass("active");
});

I had to go a step forward because my file names were not the same as my nav bar titles. i.e. my first nav bar link was HOME but the file name is index..
So just grab the pathname and match it.
Obviously this is a crude example and could be more efficient but it is highly custom need.
var loc_path = location.pathname;
$('li.active').removeClass('active');
if(loc_path.includes('index')){
$('li :eq(0)').addClass('active');
}else if(loc_path.includes('blog')){
$('li :eq(2)').addClass('active');
}else if(loc_path.includes('news')){
$('li :eq(3)').addClass('active');
}else if(loc_path.includes('house')){
$('li :eq(4)').addClass('active');
}

Bootstrap 4 solution that worked for me:
$(document).ready(function() {
//You can name this function anything you like
function activePage(){
//When user lands on your website location.pathname is equal to "/" and in
//that case it will add "active" class to all links
//Therefore we are going to remove first character "/" from the pathname
var currentPage = location.pathname;
var slicedCurrentPage = currentPage.slice(1);
//This will add active class to link for current page
$('.nav-link').removeClass('active');
$('a[href*="' + location.pathname + '"]').closest('li').addClass('active');
//This will add active class to link for index page when user lands on your website
if (location.pathname == "/") {
$('a[href*="index"]').closest('li').addClass('active');
}
}
//Invoke function
activePage();
});
This will only work if href contains location.pathname!
If you are testing your site on your own pc (using wamp, xampp, lamp, etc...) and your site is located in some subfolder then your path is actually "/somefolder/something.php", so don't get confused.
I would suggest if you are unsure to use following code so you can make sure what is the correct location.pathname:
$(document).ready(function() {
alert(location.pathname);
});

the next answer is for those who have a multi-level menu:
var url = window.location.href;
var els = document.querySelectorAll(".dropdown-menu a");
for (var i = 0, l = els.length; i < l; i++) {
var el = els[i];
if (el.href === url) {
el.classList.add("active");
var parent = el.closest(".main-nav"); // add this class for the top level "li" to get easy the parent
parent.classList.add("active");
}
}

As someone who doesn't know javascript, here's a PHP method that works for me and is easy to understand. My whole navbar is in a PHP function that is in a file of common components I include from my pages. So for example in my 'index.php' page I have...
`
<?php
$calling_file = basename(__FILE__);
include 'my_common_includes.php'; // Going to use my navbar function "my_navbar"
my_navbar($calling_file); // Call the navbar function
?>
Then in the 'my_common_includes.php' I have...
<?php
function my_navbar($calling_file)
{
// All your usual nabvbar code here up to the menu items
if ($calling_file=="index.php") { echo '<li class="nav-item active">'; } else { echo '<li class="nav-item">'; }
echo '<a class="nav-link" href="index.php">Home</a>
</li>';
if ($calling_file=="about.php") { echo '<li class="nav-item active">'; } else { echo '<li class="nav-item">'; }
echo '<a class="nav-link" href="about.php">About</a>
</li>';
if ($calling_file=="galleries.php") { echo '<li class="nav-item active">'; } else { echo '<li class="nav-item">'; }
echo '<a class="nav-link" href="galleries.php">Galleries</a>
</li>';
// etc for the rest of the menu items and closing out the navbar
}
?>

Bootstrap 4 requires you to target the li item for active classes. In order to do that you have to find the parent of the a. The 'hitbox' of the a is as big as the li but due to bubbeling of event in JS it will give you back the a event. So you have to manually add it to its parent.
//set active navigation after click
$(".nav-link").on("click", (event) => {
$(".navbar-nav").find(".active").removeClass('active');
$(event.target).parent().addClass('active');
});

I tried about first 5 solutions and different variations of them, but they didn't work for me.
Finally I got it working with these two functions.
$(document).on('click', '.nav-link', function () {
$(".nav-item").find(".active").removeClass("active");
})
$(document).ready(function() {
$('a[href="' + location.pathname + '"]').closest('.nav-item').addClass('active');
});

when use header.php for every page for the navbar code, the jquery does not work, the active is applied and then removed, a simple solution, is as follows
on every page set variable
<?php $pageName = "index"; ?> on Index page and similarly
<?php $pageName = "contact"; ?> on Contact us page
then call the header.php (ie the nav code is in header.php)
<?php include('header.php'); >
in the header.php ensure that each nav-link is as follows
<a class="nav-link <?php if ($page_name == 'index') {echo "active";} ?> href="index.php">Home</a>
<a class="nav-link <?php if ($page_name == 'contact') {echo "active";} ?> href="contact.php">Contact Us</a>
hope this helps cause i have spent days to get the jquery to work but failed,
if someone would kindly explain what exactly is the issue when the header.php is included and then page loads... why the jquery fails to add the active class to the nav-link..??

For Bootstrap 5 I use the folowing to keep the dropdown items active after navigating to a url.
<li class="nav-item dropdown text-center ">
<a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle dropdown-toggle-split" href="#" id="navbarDropdown1" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
Clienten
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown1">
<li><h6 class="dropdown-header">Iedereen</h6></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item " aria-current="page" href="/submap/IndexClients.php">Overzicht</a></li>
<li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
<li><h6 class="dropdown-header">Persoonlijk</h6></li>
<li><a class="dropdown-item" aria-current="page" href="/submap/IndexClientsP.php">Overzicht (<?= $usernamesession ?>)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
$('a.active').removeClass('active');
var active = window.location.pathname;
$('a[href="' + active + '"]').closest('.dropdown-item').addClass('active');
});
</script>

Bootstrap 5.1
This is already implemented in bootstrap, and explained neatly in the documentation under the scrollspy section. Link to documentation
Steps to fix active state toggle:
set position:relative on your body element
add id="navbar" to your navbar section.
include this in your js file, or inside in the html:
var scrollSpy = new bootstrap.ScrollSpy(document.body, {
target: '#navbar'
})

With bootstrap 4 I missed from the documentation that I needed to also add
$('#myList a').on('click', function (e) {
e.preventDefault()
$(this).tab('show')
})
https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/list-group/

how to set active class to nav menu from twitter bootstrap

I'm new to the twitter bootstrap. Using there navigation menus . I'm trying to set active class to selected menu.
my menu is -
<div class="nav-collapse">
<ul class="nav">
<li id="home" class="active">Home</li>
<li>Project</li>
<li>Customer</li>
<li>Staff</li>
<li id="broker">Broker</li>
<li>Sale</li>
</ul>
</div>
I tried following thing after googling on this that i have to set active class on each page from menu like as--
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$('#home').addClass('active');
});
</script>
but problem for above is that i set home menu selected by default. Then it always get selected. Is there any other way to do this ? , or which i can generalize and keep my js in layout file itself?
After executing application my menu looks -
after clicking on other menu item i get following result-
And i added following scripts on Index view and Broker view ---
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$('#home').addClass('active');
});
</script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$('#broker').addClass('active');
});
</script>
respectively.

You can use this JavaScript\jQuery code:
// Sets active link in Bootstrap menu
// Add this code in a central place used\shared by all pages
// like your _Layout.cshtml in ASP.NET MVC for example
$('a[href="' + this.location.pathname + '"]').parents('li,ul').addClass('active');
It'll set the <a>'s parent <li> and the <li>'s parent <ul> as active.
A simple solution that works!
Original source:
Bootstrap add active class to li

it is a workaround. try
<div class="nav-collapse">
<ul class="nav">
<li id="home" class="active">Home</li>
<li>Project</li>
<li>Customer</li>
<li>Staff</li>
<li id="demo">Broker</li>
<li id='sale'>Sale</li>
</ul>
</div>
and on each page js add
$(document).ready(function () {
$(".nav li").removeClass("active");//this will remove the active class from
//previously active menu item
$('#home').addClass('active');
//for demo
//$('#demo').addClass('active');
//for sale
//$('#sale').addClass('active');
});

I had the same problem... solved it by adding the code shown below to the Into "$(document).ready" part of my "functions.js" file which is included in every page footer. It's pretty simple. It gets the full current URL of the displayed page and compares it to the full anchor href URL. If they are the same, set anchor (li) parent as active. And do this only if anchor href value is not "#", then the bootstrap will solve it.
$(document).ready(function () {
$(function(){
var current_page_URL = location.href;
$( "a" ).each(function() {
if ($(this).attr("href") !== "#") {
var target_URL = $(this).prop("href");
if (target_URL == current_page_URL) {
$('nav a').parents('li, ul').removeClass('active');
$(this).parent('li').addClass('active');
return false;
}
}
}); }); });

For single-page sites where the menu items simply jump down to other sections of the page, this simple solution works for me:
$('.nav li').on('click', function(){
$('.nav li').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});

You could add a diffrent class onto the BODY tag on each page e.g. on the homepage you could have this:
<body class="nav-1-on">
Then this css:
.nav-1-on .nav-1 a, .nav-2-on .nav-2 a, .nav-3-on .nav-3 a, .nav-4-on .nav-4 a {
// set your styles here
}
The NAV element:
<ul>
<li class="nav-1">Home</li>
<li class="nav-2">Services</li>
<li class="nav-3">About</li>
<li class="nav-4">Contact</li>
</ul>
#
Alternatively you could place a class on the BODY on each page and then grab that via jQuery and add the .active class to the correct nav item based on that tag.

<div class="nav-collapse">
<ul class="nav">
<li class="home">Home</li>
<li class="Project">Project</li>
<li class="Customer">Customer</li>
<li class="Staff">Staff</li>
<li class="Broker">Broker</li>
<li class="Sale">Sale</li>
</ul>
</div>
then for each page you add this:
//home
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.home').addClass('active');
});
//Project page
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.Project').addClass('active');
});
//Customer page
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.Customer').addClass('active');
});
//staff page
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.Staff').addClass('active');
});

<div class="nav-collapse">
<ul class="nav">
<li class="home">Home</li>
<li class="Project">Project</li>
<li class="Customer">Customer</li>
<li class="Staff">Staff</li>
<li class="Broker">Broker</li>
<li class="Sale">Sale</li>
</ul>
</div>
$('ul.nav>li.home>a').click(); // first. same to all the other options changing the li class name

For single page sites, the following is what I used. It not only sets the active element based on what's been clicked but it also checks for a hash value within the URL location on initial page load.
$(document).ready(function () {
var removeActive = function() {
$( "nav a" ).parents( "li, ul" ).removeClass("active");
};
$( ".nav li" ).click(function() {
removeActive();
$(this).addClass( "active" );
});
removeActive();
$( "a[href='" + location.hash + "']" ).parent( "li" ).addClass( "active" );
});

For those using Codeigniter, add this below your sidebar menu,
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$(".nav li").removeClass("active");
var currentUrl = "<?php echo current_url(); ?>";
$('a[href="' + currentUrl + '"]').parents('li,ul').addClass('active');
});
</script>

(function (window) {
bs3Utils = {}
bs3Utils.nav = {
activeTab: function (tabId) {
/// <summary>
/// 设置需要展现的tab
/// </summary>
/// <param name="tabId"></param>
$('.nav-tabs a[href="#' + tabId + '"]').tab('show');
}
}
window.bs3Utils = bs3Utils;
})(window);
example:
var _actvieTab = _type == '0' ? 'portlet_tab2_1' : 'portlet_tab2_2';
bs3Utils.nav.activeTab(_actvieTab);
<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
<li class="active">
箱-单灯节点
</li>
<li>
箱-灯组节点
</li>
</ul>

$( ".nav li" ).click(function() {
$('.nav li').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
check this out.

I am using Flask Bootstrap.
My solution is a little bit simpler because my template already receives the option or choice as a parameter from Flask.
var choice = document.getElementById("{{ item_kind }}");
choice.className += "active";
First line, js code gets the element. So, you should identify each of the elements with a id. I'll show an example below.
Second line, you add the class active.
You can see html ids below.
<div class="navbar-collapse collapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li>
<a id="speed" href="{{ url_for('list_gold_per_item',item_kind='speed',level='2') }}">
<h2>Speed</h2>
</a>
</li>
<li>
<a id="life" href="{{ url_for('list_gold_per_item',item_kind='life',level='3') }}">
<h2>Life</h2>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>

I just added a custom class to the ul section named target-active
<ul class="nav navbar-nav target-active">
<li>HOME</li>
<li>FIND A TRUCK</li>
<li>OUR SERVICES</li>
<li>ABOUT US</li>
</ul>
If each li tags click get a new page from different place or same place, no need to add jquery removeClass function.
Add simple one line jquery code to each page to get your desired result
1st link page
$(function(){
$(".target-active").find("[href='/']").parent().addClass("active");
});
2nd link page
$(function(){
$(".target-active").find("[href=find-truck]").parent().addClass("active");
});
3rd link page
$(function(){
$(".target-active").find("[href=our-service]").parent().addClass("active");
});
4th link page
$(function(){
$(".target-active").find("[href=about-us]").parent().addClass("active");
});