The data-toggle attributes in Twitter Bootstrap

Question

What does data-toggle attributes do in Twitter Bootstrap? I couldn't find an answer in Bootstrap API.

I have seen a similar question before as well, link. But it didn't help me much.

Answer 1

It is a Bootstrap data attribute that automatically hooks up the element to the type of widget it is. Data-* is part of the html5 spec, and data-toggle is specific to Bootstrap.

Some Examples:

data-toggle="modal"
data-toggle="collapse"
data-toggle="dropdown"
data-toggle="tab"

Go through the Bootstrap JavaScript docs and search for data-toggle and you will see it used in the code examples.

One working example:

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<div class="dropdown">
  <a class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="#">Dropdown trigger</a>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="dLabel">
    <li><a href="#">Item</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>