form2js

Usage

form2js(rootNode, delimiter, skipEmpty, nodeCallback, useIdIfEmptyName)

or with jQuery plugin:

var formData = $('form or form elements selector').toObject(options);

Values of all inputs under the rootNode will be collected into one object (skipping emptyinputs ifskipEmpty not false).

Objects/nested objects

Structure of resulting object defined in "name" attribute, delimiter is "." (dot) by default,but can be changed.

<input type="text" name="person.name.first" value="John" />
<input type="text" name="person.name.last" value="Doe" />

becomes

{
    "person" :
    {
        "name" :
        {
            "first" : "John",
            "last" : "Doe"
        }
    }
}

Arrays

Several fields with the same name with brackets defines array of values.

<label><input type="checkbox" name="person.favFood[]" value="steak" checked="checked" /> Steak</label>
<label><input type="checkbox" name="person.favFood[]" value="pizza"/> Pizza</label>
<label><input type="checkbox" name="person.favFood[]" value="chicken" checked="checked" /> Chicken</label>

becomes

{
    "person" :
    {
        "favFood" : [ "steak", "chicken" ]
    }
}

Arrays of objects/nested objects

Same index means same item in resulting array. Index doesn't specify order (order of appearance indocument will be used).

<dl>
    <dt>Give us your five friends' names and emails</dt>
    <dd>
        <label>Email <input type="text" name="person.friends[0].email" value="[e-mail]" /></label>
        <label>Name <input type="text" name="person.friends[0].name" value="Smith Agent"/></label>
    </dd>
    <dd>
        <label>Email <input type="text" name="person.friends[1].email" value="[e-mail]" /></label>
        <label>Name <input type="text" name="person.friends[1].name" value="Thomas A. Anderson" /></label>
    </dd>
</dl>

becomes

{
    "person" :
    {
        "friends" : [
            { "email" : "[e-mail]", "name" : "Smith Agent" },
            { "email" : "[e-mail]", "name" : "Thomas A. Anderson" }
        ]
    }
}

Ruby-style notation

If array index starts with [a-zA-Z_], it will be treated as field of object.

<dl>
    <dt>Ruby-style test</dt>
    <dd>
        <label>ruby[field1][foo]<input type="text" name="ruby[field1][foo]" value="baz" /></label>
        <label>ruby[field1][bar]<input type="text" name="ruby[field1][bar]" value="qux" /></label>
    </dd>
    <dd>
        <label>ruby[field2][foo]<input type="text" name="ruby[field2][foo]" value="baz" /></label>
        <label>ruby[field2][bar]<input type="text" name="ruby[field2][bar]" value="qux" /></label>
    </dd>
</dl>

will give us

{
    "ruby": {
        "field1": {
            "foo": "baz",
            "bar": "qux"
        },
        "field2": {
            "foo": "baz",
            "bar": "qux"
        }
    }
}

Custom fields

You can implement custom nodeCallback function (passed as 4th parameter to form2object()) to extract custom data:

<dl id="dateTest">
    <dt>Date of birth:</dt>
    <dd data-name="person.dateOfBirth" class="datefield">
        <select name="person.dateOfBirth.month">
            <option value="01">January</option>
            <option value="02">February</option>
            <option value="03">March</option>
            <option value="04">April</option>
            <option value="05">May</option>
            <option value="06">June</option>
            <option value="07">July</option>
            <option value="08">August</option>
            <option value="09">September</option>
            <option value="10">October</option>
            <option value="11">November</option>
            <option value="12">December</option>
        </select>
        <input type="text" name="person.dateOfBirth.day" value="1" />
        <input type="text" name="person.dateOfBirth.year" value="2011" />
    </dd>
</dl>

<script type="text/javascript">
    function processDate(node)
    {
        var dataName = node.getAttribute ? node.getAttribute('data-name') : '',
            dayNode,
            monthNode,
            yearNode,
            day,
            year,
            month;

        if (dataName && dataName != '' && node.className == 'datefield')
        {
            dayNode = node.querySelector('input[name="'+dataName + '.day"]');
            monthNode = node.querySelector('select[name="'+dataName + '.month"]');
            yearNode = node.querySelector('input[name="'+dataName + '.year"]');

            day = dayNode.value;
            year = yearNode.value;
            month = monthNode.value;

            return { name: dataName, value:  year + '-' + month + '-' + day};
        }

        return false;
    }

    var formData = form2object('dateTest', '.', true, processDate);
</script>

using processDate() callback formData will contain

{
    "person": {
        "dateOfBirth": "2011-01-12"
    }
}

Why not to use jQuery .serializeArray() or similar functions in other frameworks instead?

.serializeArray() works a bit different. It makes this structure from markup in "Arrays of objects/nested objects" example:

[
    { "person.friends[0].email" : "[e-mail]" },
    { "person.friends[0].name" : "Smith Agent" },
    { "person.friends[1].email" : "[e-mail]" },
    { "person.friends[1].name" : "Thomas A. Anderson" }
]