How to open a tab from external link?

Question

I am using Bootstrap 4 for my web page, I am facing problem with the nav-tabs.

I need to open a Forget Password Tab from the Login Tab Content page via hyperlink there.

Below code is working for me in Bootstrap 3 but not in Bootstrap 4

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist">
    <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link active" href="#log-in" data-toggle="tab">Log in</a></li>
    <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#forgot-password" data-toggle="tab">Forgot password</a></li>
    <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#sign-up" data-toggle="tab">Sign up</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="tab-content">
    <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="log-in">
        Login tab
        <a href="#forgot-password" data-toggle="tab">Go to Forget Password</a>
    </div>
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="forgot-password">Forgt password tab</div>
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="sign-up">sign-up tab</div>
</div>

Answer 1

There are two approaches I can think of to solve this issue:

1. As Bootstrap 4 does not use the url #hashes for tab navigation, a simple javascript can listen to click events on regular links and trigger additional clicks –under the hood– on the corresponding tabs.
2. Use url #hashes and open tabs based on the change of that value. This approach also have the advantage that the tabs will be directly linkable, so you could use e.g. example.com#sign-up to open a page with a specific tab opened.

Below you will find two snippets for each approach.

1. Under the hood clicks:

$('.tab-link').on('click', function(event) {
    // Prevent url change
    event.preventDefault();
    
    // `this` is the clicked <a> tag
    $('[data-toggle="tab"][href="' + this.hash + '"]').trigger('click');
})

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" id="myTab" role="tablist">
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link active" id="log-in-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#log-in" role="tab" aria-controls="log-in" aria-selected="true">Log in</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" id="forgot-password-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#forgot-password" role="tab" aria-controls="forgot-password" aria-selected="false">Forgot password</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" id="sign-up-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#sign-up" role="tab" aria-controls="sign-up" aria-selected="false">Sign up</a>
    </li>
</ul>

<div class="tab-content" id="myTabContent">
    <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="log-in" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="log-in-tab">
        Login tab<br />
        <a href="#forgot-password" Xdata-toggle="tab" class="tab-link">Go to Forget Password</a>
    </div>
    
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="forgot-password" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="forgot-password-tab">
        Forgt password tab
    </div>

    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="sign-up" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="sign-up-tab">
        Sign-up tab
    </div>
</div>


<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.slim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

2. Using hashes in url:

$(document).ready(function() {
    function onHashChange() {
        var hash = window.location.hash;

        if (hash) {
            // using ES6 template string syntax
            $(`[data-toggle="tab"][href="${hash}"]`).trigger('click');
        }
    }

    window.addEventListener('hashchange', onHashChange, false);
    onHashChange();
});

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" id="myTab" role="tablist">
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link active" id="log-in-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#log-in" role="tab" aria-controls="log-in" aria-selected="true">Log in</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" id="forgot-password-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#forgot-password" role="tab" aria-controls="forgot-password" aria-selected="false">Forgot password</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" id="sign-up-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#sign-up" role="tab" aria-controls="sign-up" aria-selected="false">Sign up</a>
    </li>
</ul>

<div class="tab-content" id="myTabContent">
    <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="log-in" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="log-in-tab">
        Login tab<br />
        <a href="#forgot-password" Xdata-toggle="tab" class="tab-link">Go to Forget Password</a>
    </div>
    
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="forgot-password" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="forgot-password-tab">
        Forgt password tab
    </div>

    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="sign-up" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="sign-up-tab">
        Sign-up tab
    </div>
</div>


<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.slim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

Answer 2

This can be achieved with jQuery by triggering a function that changes the tab when the link is clicked.

HTML

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist" id="myTabs">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" href="#log-in" data-toggle="tab">Log in</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#forgot-password" data-toggle="tab">Forgot password</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#sign-up" data-toggle="tab">Sign up</a>
  </li>
</ul>
<div class="tab-content">
  <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="log-in">
    Login tab
    <a href="#forgot-password" data-toggle="tab" class="forgot-password-link">Go to Forget Password</a>
  </div>
  <div class="tab-pane fade" id="forgot-password">Forgt password tab</div>
  <div class="tab-pane fade" id="sign-up">sign-up tab</div>
</div>

Javascript

$( ".forgot-password-link" ).click(function() {
    $('#myTabs li:nth-child(2) a').tab('show')
});

Codepen example: https://codepen.io/Washable/pen/VQYewy