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jQuery Serialize Object

As seen on StackOverflow: Convert forms to JSON LIKE A BOSS.

Adds the method serializeObject to jQuery, to perform complex form serialization into JavaScript objects.

The current implementation relies in jQuery.serializeArray() to grab the form attributes and then create the object using the input name attributes.

This means it will serialize the inputs that are supported by .serializeArray(), that use the standard W3C rules for successful controls to determine which inputs should be included; in particular:

  • The input cannot be disabled and must contain a name attribute.
  • No submit button value is serialized since the form is not submitted using a button.
  • Data from <input type="file"> inputs are not serialized.

Installation

You can include the plugin in the HEAD element or at the bottom of your BODY tag. Wherever you choose to add it, it must be included after your jQuery.

<head>
  <script src="jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="jquery.serialize-object.min.js"></script>
</head>

2.0

Version 2.0 takes jquery-serialize-object into maturity. It is now backed by a full test suite so you can be confident that it will work in your web app.

Moving ahead, on top of core serialization, .serializeObject will support correct serializaton for boolean and number values, resulting valid types for both cases.

Look forward to these in >= 2.1.0

API

Given a basic HTML form

<form id="contact">
  <input name="user[email]" value="[email protected]">
  <input name="user[pets][]" type="checkbox" value="cat" checked>
  <input name="user[pets][]" type="checkbox" value="dog" checked>
  <input name="user[pets][]" type="checkbox" value="bird">
  <input type="submit">
</form>

.serializeObject — serializes the selected form into a JavaScript object

$('form#contact').serializeObject();
//=> {user: {email: "[email protected]", pets: ["cat", "dog"]}}

.serializeJSON — serializes the selected form into JSON

$('form#contact').serializeJSON();
//=> '{"user":{"email":"[email protected]","pets":["cat","dog"]}}'

FormSerializer.patterns — modify the patterns used to match field names

Many of you have requested to allow - in field names or use . to nest keys. You can now configure these to your heart's content.

Hyphen example

$.extend(FormSerializer.patterns, {
  validate: /^[a-z][a-z0-9_-]*(?:\[(?:\d*|[a-z0-9_]+)\])*$/i,
  key:      /[a-z0-9_-]+|(?=\[\])/gi,
  named:    /^[a-z0-9_-]+$/i
});

Dot-notation example

$.extend(FormSerializer.patterns, {
  validate: /^[a-z][a-z0-9_]*(?:\.[a-z0-9_]+)*(?:\[\])?$/i
});

Validating and Key parsing

  • validate — only valid input names will be serialized; invalid names will be skipped

  • key — this pattern parses all "keys" from the input name; You will want to use /g as a modifier with this regexp.

Key styles

  • push — pushe a value to an array

    <input name="foo[]" value="a">
<input name="foo[]" value="b">
    $("form").serializeObject();
//=> {foo: [a, b]}

  • fixed — add a value to an array at a specified index

    <input name="foo[2]" value="a">
<input name="foo[4]" value="b">
    $("form").serializeObject();
//=> {foo: [, , "a", , "b"]}

  • named — adds a value to the specified key

    <input name="foo[bar]" value="a">
<input name="foo[bof]" value="b">
<input name="hello" value="world">
    $("form").serializeObject();
//=> {foo: {bar: "a", bof: "b"}, hello: "world"}

Tests

If you have node.js installed, as a convenience, you can run

$ npm test

If you do not have node installed, simply

$ open ./test/test.html

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript has been dropped for >= 2.0.0. If members of the community would like to support this, please feel free to add a CoffeeScript version.

If you'd like to use the the 1.0.0 version, it is still available here.

Contributing

All pull requests must be backed by tests or they will be rejected.

Once you have finished your changes, build the new plugin:

$ npm run-script build

Do not bump the version. I will handle versioning.