jquery-inputs is a jQuery plugin that allows to set/get form inputs using hierarchical JSON structures

This version is a (significant rewrite of and a) deviation on dshimkoski/jquery-inputs.

The following backward-INcompatible changes were made on top on original code:

• The version of jquery-inputs from which this one was cloned did NOT seem work when .Get() was called on non-Form jQuery elem array (i.e. div, containing a set of input elems). (Happened because $.serialize() does not work on non-input or non-form elems) This version allows the passed in jQuery elems (for both .Set() and .Get()) to be a mix of inputs elems AND, at the same time, non-Form "parent" elems containing input elems. We .filter(":input") then join that to .find(":input") meaning siblings (within the passed in jQuery array set) as well as their children input elems are picked up.
• .set() now also stores the default value as $(input element).data['defaultValue'] (useful for checking for changes on a per-field basis and coloring the field on-change.)
• support of underscore and square brackets as separators in input field names is removed. This shaves off a bit of time when parsing long forms. You can specify the desired separators per each call. Default separators are: ".",":","_","|"
• plugin now relies on some JavaScript 1.6+ methods of Object, Array objects. This means you must load a shim (like augment.js) for older browsers (IE less than 9). (Test for Array.isArray and Array.prototype.indexOf support as indicators of needing a shim.)
• Tunned for operation against jQuery 1.6+ where there is a tangible difference between .attr and .prop. Plugin is not tested against earlier versions, which are subjectively considered not to exist.
• Plugin is now AMD-loader compatible. You can now simply require(['jquery.inputs'], function($){ /* do things with $ */}) We require 'jquery' internally. Please, insure that you hard-define 'jquery' before loading this plugin by define('jquery', ... or by setting up a 'path' for it as 'jqeury' in AMD loader's config.
• .set() now HONORS the default value for the field as specificed in the HTML (VALUE="some default") and uses (places that value back into active value) when data for the field is not provided in the data. The version of jquery-inputs from which this one was cloned did NOT seem to honor the defaults and overrode those with "" (per my, possibly faulty, recollection).
• You can specify what separators you want to be used per each application of .get() and .set(), which allows you to set or set with data that contains key names (that you would like to preserve) containing separators.

Form elements may be named using a dot-delimited or underscore-delimited key name chain. For example, "One.Two_Three" will be translated as reference to a value addressed as such in a JavaScript Object "obj['One']['Two']['Three'] = Value

// call to get returns the object
answer = $('#element_id').inputs('get')
// you can complicate the 'get' by narrowing down the types of inputs you want to scrape
// by specifying a jquery selector string:
answer = $('#element_id').inputs('get','.changed_only')
// You could also override the defalut list of name separators by specifying a settings value collection:
answer = $('#element_id').inputs('get',null, {'separators':['.','|']})
// this way names with other supported default separators ("_", ":") will not be chopped at those characters.

// call to set sets data
answer = $('#element_id').inputs('set', dataobject)
// You could override the defalut list of name separators here as well by specifying a settings value collection:
answer = $('#element_id').inputs('get',null, {'separators':['.','|']})
// this way names in dataobject with other supported default separators ("_", ":") will not be chopped at those characters.

Add something like this to your page:

<script src="jquery.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.inputs.js"></script>
<form id="demo-form">
	<input type="text" name="demo_text" value="textval" />
	<textarea name="demo.textarea">textareaval</textarea>
	<select name="demo.select" multiple="multiple">
		<option value="option_a" selected="selected">Option A</option>
		<option value="option_b" selected="selected">Option B</option>
	</select>
	<label><input type="radio" name="demo.radio" value="1" />1</label>
	<label><input type="radio" name="demo.radio" value="2" />2</label>
	<label><input type="checkbox" name="demo.checkbox" value="1" />1</label>
	<label><input type="checkbox" name="demo.checkbox" value="2" />2</label>
</form>

Set/get values via javascript:

<script>
jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
	$('#demo-form').inputs('set', {
		demo: {
			text: 'text',
			textarea: 'text',
			radio: 2,
			checkbox: 2, // [1,2]
			select: ['option_a', 'option_b']
		}
	});
	console.log( $('#demo-form').inputs('get') );
});
</script>

See tests for more examples.

MIT License

See source header for full and most current Copyright attributions.