Justifying a navbar in Bootstrap 4

Question

I have a navbar on which I've made use of split button dropdowns and regular nav-items without dropdowns.

I have it somewhat working, but I'm trying to get the navigation elements to fill the browser window. I've seen references to a "factory" Bootstrap class that will do it, but I can't get it working.

I have 2 questions:

1. What would be the "factory" method way of doing this in Bootstrap 4?

2. Why is the spacing between the button elements inconsistent?

body {
  padding-top: 70px
}

.vcenter {
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: middle;
  float: none;
}


/* CSS menu */
.navbar, .navbar.btn-secondary {
  /* For browsers that do not support gradients */
  background-color: #b32017;
  /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* Standard syntax */
  background: linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
}

.navbar .btn-secondary {
  /*background-color: #b32017;*/
  /* For browsers that do not support gradients */
  background-color: #b32017;
  /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
  /* Standard syntax */
  background: linear-gradient(#b32017, #801710);
}

.navbar img {
  max-height: 40px;
}

.navbar .btn {
  /* Removes Bootstrap's border */
  border: 0px;
}

.navbar .navbar-brand {
  color: #ffffff;
}

.navbar .navbar-brand:hover, .navbar .navbar-brand:focus {
  color: #c1c1c1;
}

.navbar .navbar-text {
  color: #ffffff;
}

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link {
  color: #ffffff;
  border-radius: .25rem;
  margin: 0 0.25em;
}

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link:not(.disabled):hover, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link:not(.disabled):focus {
  color: #c1c1c1;
}

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.active .nav-link, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.active .nav-link:hover, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.active .nav-link:focus, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.show .nav-link, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.show .nav-link:hover, .navbar .navbar-nav .nav-item.show .nav-link:focus {
  color: #c1c1c1;
  background-color: #801710;
}

.navbar .navbar-toggle {
  border-color: #801710;
}

.navbar .navbar-toggle:hover, .navbar .navbar-toggle:focus {
  background-color: #801710;
}

.navbar .navbar-toggle .navbar-toggler-icon {
  color: #ffffff;
}

.navbar .navbar-collapse, .navbar .navbar-form {
  border-color: #ffffff;
}

.navbar .navbar-link {
  color: #ffffff;
}

.navbar .navbar-link:hover {
  color: #c1c1c1;
}

@media (max-width: 767px) {
  .navbar .navbar-nav .open .dropdown-menu .dropdown-item .dropdown-menu.show {
    /* no gradient support */
    /* #cccccc */
    color: #ffffff;

    /* For browsers that do not support gradients */
    background-color: #ffffff;
    /* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
    /* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
    /* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
    /* Standard syntax */
    background: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);

  }
  .navbar .navbar-nav .open .dropdown-menu .dropdown-item:hover, .navbar .navbar-nav .open .dropdown-menu .dropdown-item:focus {
    color: #c1c1c1;
  }
  .navbar .navbar-nav .open .dropdown-menu .dropdown-item.active {
    color: #c1c1c1;
    background-color: #801710;
  }
}

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.slim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.11.0/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-beta/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0-beta/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
  <title>Experimental Test Page</title>
</head>

<body>
  <!-- Navigation -->
  <nav class="navbar fixed-top navbar-expand-sm bg-faded navbar-light">
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#nav-content" aria-controls="nav-content" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
  <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
  </button>
    <!-- Brand -->
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">
    </a>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="nav-content">
      <ul class="navbar-nav btn-group">
        <!-- Home -->
        <li class="nav-item">
          <div class="btn-group">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-secondary" role="button"><i class="fa fa-fw fa-home"><!-- --></i> Home</a>
            <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle dropdown-toggle-split" data-toggle="dropdown">
            </button>
            <div class="dropdown-menu">
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#"><i class="fa fa-fw fa-map-marker"><!-- --></i>Hours &amp; Location</a>
            </div>
          </div>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <div class="btn-group" role="button">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-secondary" role="button">Section</a>
            <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle dropdown-toggle-split" data-toggle="dropdown">
            </button>
            <div class="dropdown-menu">
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 1</a>
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 2</a>
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 3</a>
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 4</a>
            </div>
          </div>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link btn btn-secondary" href="#" role="button">Another Section</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link btn btn-secondary" href="#" role="button">Section</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link btn btn-secondary" href="#" role="button">Section</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <div class="btn-group" role="button">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-secondary" role="button">Products</a>
            <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary dropdown-toggle dropdown-toggle-split" data-toggle="dropdown">
            </button>
            <div class="dropdown-menu">
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 1</a>
              <a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Item 2</a>
            </div>
          </div>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </nav>
</body>

</html>

Answer 1

You could use nav-justified, making sure the navbar-nav is full width using w-100...

<ul class="navbar-nav w-100 nav-justified">
      <li class="nav-item">..<li>
      <li class="nav-item">..<li>
</ul>

https://codeply.com/go/od0TnGfQv2

Answer 2

For Bootstrap4 this would work better

<ul class="navbar nav  nav-justified">
    <li class="nav-item">Match Found</li>
    <li class="nav-item">Shortlist</li>               
</ul>