Bootstrap 4 - Navbar items outside the collapse

Question

Ok so I have to admit this is something I have always struggled with getting to work correctly even in BS3. But I want to have navbar links outside of the collapsed container that stay persistent.

This is what I have right now:

<nav class="navbar fixed-top navbar-expand-lg navbar-template">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbarNavDropdown">
        <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavDropdown">
        <ul class="navbar-nav ml-auto">
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" 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="http://example.com" id="navbarDropdownMenuLink" data-toggle="dropdown">Dropdown link</a>
                <div class="dropdown-menu dropdown-menu-right">
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a>
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a>
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
                </div>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
    <ul class="navbar-nav">
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#"><span class="fa fa-facebook"></span></a></li>
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#"><span class="fa fa-twitter"></span></a></li>
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#"><span class="fa fa-youtube"></span></a></li>
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#"><span class="fa fa-linkedin"></span></a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>

This works until the first nav is in a collapsed state. When the collapse is active it looks like this:

Has anyone found a clean solution for this?

Answer 1

The simplest way is using the flexbox utility classes, so no extra CSS is needed. Keep the items you always want to show out of the navbar-collapse div.

https://www.codeply.com/go/TWZGiy3VGw

<nav class="navbar fixed-top navbar-light navbar-expand-lg navbar-template">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
    <div class="d-flex flex-row order-2 order-lg-3">
        <ul class="navbar-nav flex-row">
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link px-2" href="#"><span class="fa fa-facebook"></span></a></li>
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link px-2" href="#"><span class="fa fa-twitter"></span></a></li>
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link px-2" href="#"><span class="fa fa-youtube"></span></a></li>
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link px-2" href="#"><span class="fa fa-linkedin"></span></a></li>
        </ul>
        <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbarNavDropdown">
            <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
        </button>
    </div>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse order-3 order-lg-2" id="navbarNavDropdown">
        <ul class="navbar-nav ml-auto">
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" 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="http://example.com" id="navbarDropdownMenuLink" data-toggle="dropdown">Dropdown link</a>
                <div class="dropdown-menu dropdown-menu-right">
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a>
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a>
                    <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
                </div>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</nav>

Notice the use the responsive order-* classes to ensure the collapse menu items remain last (order-3) when in the collapsed/mobile breakpoint.