How to Display Selected Item in Bootstrap Button Dropdown Title

Question

As far as i understood your issue is that you want to change the text of the button with the clicking linked text, if so you can try this one: http://jsbin.com/owuyix/4/edit

 $(function(){

    $(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){

      $(".btn:first-child").text($(this).text());
      $(".btn:first-child").val($(this).text());

   });

});

---

As per your comment:

this doesn't work for me when I have lists item <li> populated through ajax call.

so you have to delegate the event to the closest static parent with .on() jQuery method:

 $(function(){

    $(".dropdown-menu").on('click', 'li a', function(){
      $(".btn:first-child").text($(this).text());
      $(".btn:first-child").val($(this).text());
   });

});

Here event is delegated to static parent $(".dropdown-menu"), although you can delegate the event to the $(document) too because it is always available.

Updated for Bootstrap 3.3.4:

This will allow you to have different display text and data value for each element. It will also persist the caret on selection.

JS:

$(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){
  $(this).parents(".dropdown").find('.btn').html($(this).text() + ' <span class="caret"></span>');
  $(this).parents(".dropdown").find('.btn').val($(this).data('value'));
});

HTML:

<div class="dropdown">
  <button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="true">
    Dropdown
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu1">
    <li><a href="#" data-value="action">Action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="another action">Another action</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="something else here">Something else here</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" data-value="separated link">Separated link</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

JS Fiddle Example

I was able to slightly improve Jai's answer to work in the case of you having more than one button dropdown with a pretty good presentation that works with bootstrap 3:

Code for The Button

<div class="btn-group">
  <button type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
    Option: <span class="selection">Option 1</span><span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
    <li><a href="#">Option 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Option 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Option 3</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

JQuery Snippet

$(".dropdown-menu li a").click(function(){

  $(this).parents(".btn-group").find('.selection').text($(this).text());
  $(this).parents(".btn-group").find('.selection').val($(this).text());

});

I also added a 5px margin-right to the "selection" class.

This single jQuery function will do all you need.

$( document ).ready(function() {
    $('.dropdown').each(function (key, dropdown) {
        var $dropdown = $(dropdown);
        $dropdown.find('.dropdown-menu a').on('click', function () {
            $dropdown.find('button').text($(this).text()).append(' <span class="caret"></span>');
        });
    });
});

Another simple way (Bootstrap 4) to work with multiple dropdowns

    $('.dropdown-item').on('click',  function(){
        var btnObj = $(this).parent().siblings('button');
        $(btnObj).text($(this).text());
        $(btnObj).val($(this).text());
    });

Here is my version of this which I hope can save some of your time :)

jQuery PART:

$(".dropdown-menu").on('click', 'li a', function(){
  var selText = $(this).children("h4").html();


 $(this).parent('li').siblings().removeClass('active');
    $('#vl').val($(this).attr('data-value'));
  $(this).parents('.btn-group').find('.selection').html(selText);
  $(this).parents('li').addClass("active");
});

HTML PART:

<div class="container">
  <div class="btn-group">
    <a class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle btn-blog " data-toggle="dropdown" href="#" id="dropdownMenu1" style="width:200px;"><span class="selection pull-left">Select an option </span> 
      <span class="pull-right glyphiconglyphicon-chevron-down caret" style="float:right;margin-top:10px;"></span></a>

     <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu1">
       <li><a href="#" class="" data-value=1><p> HER Can you write extra text or <b>HTLM</b></p> <h4> <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-plane"></span>  <span> Your Option 1</span> </h4></a>  </li>
       <li><a href="#" class="" data-value=2><p> HER Can you write extra text or <i>HTLM</i> or some long long long long long long long long long long text </p><h4> <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-briefcase"></span> <span>Your Option 2</span>  </h4></a>
      </li>
      <li class="divider"></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="" data-value=3><p> HER Can you write extra text or <b>HTLM</b> or some </p><h4> <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-heart text-danger"></span> <span>Your Option 3</span>  </h4></a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <input type="text" id="vl" />
</div>  

This one works on more than one dropdown in the same page. Furthermore, I added caret on selected item:

    $(".dropdown-menu").on('click', 'li a', function(){
        $(this).parent().parent().siblings(".btn:first-child").html($(this).text()+' <span class="caret"></span>');
        $(this).parent().parent().siblings(".btn:first-child").val($(this).text());
    });