description: Provide contextual feedback messages for typical user actions with the handful of available and flexible alert messages.
group: components
toc: true
---
## Examples
Alerts are available for any length of text, as well as an optional close button. For proper styling, use one of the eight **required** contextual classes (e.g., `.alert-success`). For inline dismissal, use the [alerts JavaScript plugin](#dismissing).
**Heads up!** As of v5.3.0, the `alert-variant()` Sass mixin is deprecated. Alert variants now have their CSS variables overridden in [a Sass loop](#sass-loops).
Use the `.alert-link` utility class to quickly provide matching colored links within any alert.
{{<example>}}
{{<alerts.inline>}}
{{- range (index $.Site.Data "theme-colors") }}
<divclass="alert alert-{{ .name }}"role="alert">
A simple {{ .name }} alert with <ahref="#"class="alert-link">an example link</a>. Give it a click if you like.
</div>{{ end -}}
{{</alerts.inline>}}
{{</example>}}
### Additional content
Alerts can also contain additional HTML elements like headings, paragraphs and dividers.
{{<example>}}
<divclass="alert alert-success"role="alert">
<h4class="alert-heading">Well done!</h4>
<p>Aww yeah, you successfully read this important alert message. This example text is going to run a bit longer so that you can see how spacing within an alert works with this kind of content.</p>
<hr>
<pclass="mb-0">Whenever you need to, be sure to use margin utilities to keep things nice and tidy.</p>
</div>
{{</example>}}
### Icons
Similarly, you can use [flexbox utilities]({{< docsref "/utilities/flex" >}}) and [Bootstrap Icons]({{< param icons >}}) to create alerts with icons. Depending on your icons and content, you may want to add more utilities or custom styles.
Need more than one icon for your alerts? Consider using more Bootstrap Icons and making a local SVG sprite like so to easily reference the same icons repeatedly.
Using the alert JavaScript plugin, it's possible to dismiss any alert inline. Here's how:
- Be sure you've loaded the alert plugin, or the compiled Bootstrap JavaScript.
- Add a [close button]({{< docsref "/components/close-button" >}}) and the `.alert-dismissible` class, which adds extra padding to the right of the alert and positions the close button.
- On the close button, add the `data-bs-dismiss="alert"` attribute, which triggers the JavaScript functionality. Be sure to use the `<button>` element with it for proper behavior across all devices.
- To animate alerts when dismissing them, be sure to add the `.fade` and `.show` classes.
When an alert is dismissed, the element is completely removed from the page structure. If a keyboard user dismisses the alert using the close button, their focus will suddenly be lost and, depending on the browser, reset to the start of the page/document. For this reason, we recommend including additional JavaScript that listens for the `closed.bs.alert` event and programmatically sets `focus()` to the most appropriate location in the page. If you're planning to move focus to a non-interactive element that normally does not receive focus, make sure to add `tabindex="-1"` to the element.
{{</callout>}}
## CSS
### Variables
{{<added-in"5.2.0">}}
As part of Bootstrap's evolving CSS variables approach, alerts now use local CSS variables on `.alert` for enhanced real-time customization. Values for the CSS variables are set via Sass, so Sass customization is still supported, too.
const alerts = [...alertList].map(element => new bootstrap.Alert(element))
```
{{<calloutinfo>}}
For the sole purpose of dismissing an alert, it isn't necessary to initialize the component manually via the JS API. By making use of `data-bs-dismiss="alert"`, the component will be initialized automatically and properly dismissed.
See the [triggers](#triggers) section for more details.
{{</callout>}}
### Triggers
{{% js-dismiss "alert" %}}
**Note that closing an alert will remove it from the DOM.**
### Methods
You can create an alert instance with the alert constructor, for example:
```js
const bsAlert = new bootstrap.Alert('#myAlert')
```
This makes an alert listen for click events on descendant elements which have the `data-bs-dismiss="alert"` attribute. (Not necessary when using the data-api’s auto-initialization.)
{{<bs-table>}}
| Method | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `close` | Closes an alert by removing it from the DOM. If the `.fade` and `.show` classes are present on the element, the alert will fade out before it is removed. |
| `dispose` | Destroys an element's alert. (Removes stored data on the DOM element) |
| `getInstance` | Static method which allows you to get the alert instance associated to a DOM element. For example: `bootstrap.Alert.getInstance(alert)`. |
| `getOrCreateInstance` | Static method which returns an alert instance associated to a DOM element or create a new one in case it wasn't initialized. You can use it like this: `bootstrap.Alert.getOrCreateInstance(element)`. |
