Convert forms to JSON like a boss
The current source is my on GitHub and Bower.
$ bower install jquery-serialize-object
The following code is now deprecated.
The following code can take work with all sorts of input names; and handle them just as you'd expect.
For example:
<!-- All of these will work! -->
<input name="honey[badger]" value="a">
<input name="wombat[]" value="b">
<input name="hello[panda][]" value="c">
<input name="animals[0][name]" value="d">
<input name="animals[0][breed]" value="e">
<input name="crazy[1][][wonky]" value="f">
<input name="dream[as][vividly][as][you][can]" value="g">
// Output
{
"honey":{
"badger":"a"
},
"wombat":["b"],
"hello":{
"panda":["c"]
},
"animals":[
{
"name":"d",
"breed":"e"
}
],
"crazy":[
null,
[
{"wonky":"f"}
]
],
"dream":{
"as":{
"vividly":{
"as":{
"you":{
"can":"g"
}
}
}
}
}
}
Usage
$('#my-form').serializeObject();
The Sorcery (JavaScript)
(function($){
$.fn.serializeObject = function(){
var self = this,
json = {},
push_counters = {},
patterns = {
"validate": /^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*(?:\[(?:\d*|[a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\])*$/,
"key": /[a-zA-Z0-9_]+|(?=\[\])/g,
"push": /^$/,
"fixed": /^\d+$/,
"named": /^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$/
};
this.build = function(base, key, value){
base[key] = value;
return base;
};
this.push_counter = function(key){
if(push_counters[key] === undefined){
push_counters[key] = 0;
}
return push_counters[key]++;
};
$.each($(this).serializeArray(), function(){
// Skip invalid keys
if(!patterns.validate.test(this.name)){
return;
}
var k,
keys = this.name.match(patterns.key),
merge = this.value,
reverse_key = this.name;
while((k = keys.pop()) !== undefined){
// Adjust reverse_key
reverse_key = reverse_key.replace(new RegExp("\\[" + k + "\\]$"), '');
// Push
if(k.match(patterns.push)){
merge = self.build([], self.push_counter(reverse_key), merge);
}
// Fixed
else if(k.match(patterns.fixed)){
merge = self.build([], k, merge);
}
// Named
else if(k.match(patterns.named)){
merge = self.build({}, k, merge);
}
}
json = $.extend(true, json, merge);
});
return json;
};
})(jQuery);