Customizing twitter bootstrap popover arrow

Question

I could not find any relevant information on this, but I find it hard to swallow that it\'s not doable.

How can I customise the arrow for the popovers? I already did

Answer 1

I was having trouble adjusting popover border thickness. To adjust this I added the @popoverBorderThickness to popovers.less, only those lines are changed. I included the whole file for context.

//
// Popovers
// --------------------------------------------------


.popover {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  z-index: @zindexPopover;
  display: none;
  max-width: 276px;
  padding: 1px;
  text-align: left; // Reset given new insertion method
  background-color: @popoverBackground;
  -webkit-background-clip: padding-box;
     -moz-background-clip: padding;
          background-clip: padding-box;
  border: @popoverBorderThickness solid @popoverOuterColor;
  .border-radius(6px);
  .box-shadow(0 5px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.2));

  // Overrides for proper insertion
  white-space: normal;

  // Offset the popover to account for the popover arrow
  &.top     { margin-top: -10px; }
  &.right   { margin-left: 10px; }
  &.bottom  { margin-top: 10px; }
  &.left    { margin-left: -10px; }
}

.popover-title {
  margin: 0; // reset heading margin
  padding: 8px 14px;
  font-size: 14px;
  font-weight: normal;
  line-height: 18px;
  background-color: @popoverTitleBackground;
  border-bottom: 1px solid darken(@popoverTitleBackground, 5%);
  .border-radius(5px 5px 0 0);

  &:empty {
    display: none;
  }
}

.popover-content {
  padding: 9px 14px;
}

// Arrows
//
// .arrow is outer, .arrow:after is inner

.popover .arrow,
.popover .arrow:after {
  position: absolute;
  display: block;
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  border-color: transparent;
  border-style: solid;
}
.popover .arrow {
  border-width: @popoverArrowOuterWidth;
}
.popover .arrow:after {
  border-width: @popoverArrowWidth;
  content: "";
}

.popover {
  &.top .arrow {
    left: 50%;
    margin-left: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    border-bottom-width: 0;
    border-top-color: #999; // IE8 fallback
    border-top-color: @popoverArrowOuterColor;
    bottom: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    &:after {
      bottom: @popoverBorderThickness * 1.414;// longer line gets thinner use Pythagorean theorem to correct
      margin-left: -@popoverArrowWidth;
      border-bottom-width: 0;
      border-top-color: @popoverArrowColor;
    }
  }
  &.right .arrow {
    top: 50%;
    left: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    margin-top: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    border-left-width: 0;
    border-right-color: #999; // IE8 fallback
    border-right-color: @popoverArrowOuterColor;
    &:after {
      left: @popoverBorderThickness * 1.414;// longer line gets thinner use Pythagorean theorem to correct
      bottom: -@popoverArrowWidth;
      border-left-width: 0;
      border-right-color: @popoverArrowColor;
    }
  }
  &.bottom .arrow {
    left: 50%;
    margin-left: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    border-top-width: 0;
    border-bottom-color: #999; // IE8 fallback
    border-bottom-color: @popoverArrowOuterColor;
    top: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    &:after {
      top: @popoverBorderThickness * 1.414;// longer line gets thinner use Pythagorean theorem to correct
      margin-left: -@popoverArrowWidth;
      border-top-width: 0;
      border-bottom-color: @popoverArrowColor;
    }
  }

  &.left .arrow {
    top: 50%;
    right: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    margin-top: -@popoverArrowOuterWidth;
    border-right-width: 0;
    border-left-color: #999; // IE8 fallback
    border-left-color: @popoverArrowOuterColor;
    &:after {
      right: @popoverBorderThickness * 1.414;// longer line gets thinner use Pythagorean theorem to correct
      border-right-width: 0;
      border-left-color: @popoverArrowColor;
      bottom: -@popoverArrowWidth;
    }
  }

}

Answer 2

Twitter Bootstrap is based on Less.

If you want to change the appearance of its arrows use the bootstrap less variables to do so.

// Tooltips and popovers
// -------------------------
@tooltipColor:            #fff;
@tooltipBackground:       #000;
@tooltipArrowWidth:       5px;
@tooltipArrowColor:       @tooltipBackground;

@popoverBackground:       #fff;
@popoverArrowWidth:       10px;
@popoverArrowColor:       #fff;
@popoverTitleBackground:  darken(@popoverBackground, 3%);

// Special enhancement for popovers
@popoverArrowOuterWidth:  @popoverArrowWidth + 1;
@popoverArrowOuterColor:  rgba(0,0,0,.25);

If you are using Sass instead do the same with the Sass Variables.

Sadly the TB-Customizer doesn't have all the variables so you might have to compile it on your own.

Edit:

Good news the new Bootstrap 3 customizer now provides these options.

Answer 3

Use these variables to customize tooltips:

@tooltip-max-width:       200px;
@tooltip-color:           #FFF;
@tooltip-bg:              #000;
@tooltip-opacity:         .9;
@tooltip-arrow-width:     5px;
@tooltip-arrow-color:     #000;

Check the docs here: http://getbootstrap.com/customize/#tooltips

Answer 4

For anyone using a custom style.css to simply overwrite bootstrap without recompiling the LESS, the css rule you're looking for is .popover.top > .arrow:after { border-top-color: yourColorHere; } to change the color of just the arrow.