How do I convert all elements of my form to a JavaScript object?
I'd like to have some way of automatically building a JavaScript object from my form, without having to loop over each element. I do not want a string, as returned by $('#formid').serialize();, nor do I want the map returned by $('#formid').serializeArray();
serializeArray already does exactly that. You just need to massage the data into your required format:
function objectifyForm(formArray) {
//serialize data function
var returnArray = {};
for (var i = 0; i < formArray.length; i++){
returnArray[formArray[i]['name']] = formArray[i]['value'];
}
return returnArray;
}
Watch out for hidden fields which have the same name as real inputs as they will get overwritten.
With a simple oneliner in vanilla js that leverages fromEntries (as always, check browser support):
Object.fromEntries(new FormData(form))
There really is no way to do this without examining each of the elements. What you really want to know is "has someone else already written a method that converts a form to a JSON object?" Something like the following should work -- note that it will only give you the form elements that would be returned via a POST (must have a name). This is not tested.
function formToJSON( selector )
{
var form = {};
$(selector).find(':input[name]:enabled').each( function() {
var self = $(this);
var name = self.attr('name');
if (form[name]) {
form[name] = form[name] + ',' + self.val();
}
else {
form[name] = self.val();
}
});
return form;
}
If you are using Underscore.js you can use the relatively concise:
_.object(_.map($('#myform').serializeArray(), _.values))
One-liner (no dependencies other than jQuery), uses fixed object binding for function passsed to map method.
$('form').serializeArray().map(function(x){this[x.name] = x.value; return this;}.bind({}))[0]
What it does?
"id=2&value=1&comment=ok" => Object { id: "2", value: "1", comment: "ok" }
suitable for progressive web apps (one can easily support both regular form submit action as well as ajax requests)
const formData = new FormData(form);
let formDataJSON = {};
for (const [key, value] of formData.entries()) {
formDataJSON[key] = value;
}
Another answer
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
setInterval(function() {
var form = document.getElementById('form') || document.querySelector('form[name="userprofile"]');
var json = Array.from(new FormData(form)).map(function(e,i) {this[e[0]]=e[1]; return this;}.bind({}))[0];
console.log(json)
document.querySelector('#asJSON').value = JSON.stringify(json);
}, 1000);
})<form name="userprofile" id="form">
<p>Name <input type="text" name="firstname" value="John"/></p>
<p>Family name <input name="lastname" value="Smith"/></p>
<p>Work <input name="employment[name]" value="inc, Inc."/></p>
<p>Works since <input name="employment[since]" value="2017" /></p>
<p>Photo <input type="file" /></p>
<p>Send <input type="submit" /></p>
</form>
JSON: <textarea id="asJSON"></textarea>FormData: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData
Here's a one-liner using reduce. Reduce is a functional function that takes the return value of the passed function and passes it back to the passed function in the next iteration, along with the nth value from the list.
$('#formid').serializeArray().reduce((o,p) => ({...o, [p.name]: p.value}))
We have to use a few of tricks to get this to work:
...o (spread syntax) inserts all the key: value pairs from o() to distinguish it from the {} that denote a functionp.name) in []Taking advantage of ES6 goodness in a one liner:
$("form").serializeArray().reduce((o, {name: n, value: v}) => Object.assign(o, { [n]: v }), {});
So I used the accepted answer and found a major flaw.
It doesn't support input arrays like:
<input type="checkbox" name="array[]" value="1"/>
<input type="checkbox" name="array[]" value="2"/>
<input type="checkbox" name="array[]" value="3"/>
This minor change should fix that:
function objectifyForm(inp){
var rObject = {};
for (var i = 0; i < inp.length; i++){
if(inp[i]['name'].substr(inp[i]['name'].length - 2) == "[]"){
var tmp = inp[i]['name'].substr(0, inp[i]['name'].length-2);
if(Array.isArray(rObject[tmp])){
rObject[tmp].push(inp[i]['value']);
} else{
rObject[tmp] = [];
rObject[tmp].push(inp[i]['value']);
}
} else{
rObject[inp[i]['name']] = inp[i]['value'];
}
}
return rObject;
}
Remember to pass it the output from $(this).serializeArray(); otherwise it wont work.
After spending a couple of days looking for a solution to this problem that has no dependencies, I decided to make a non-jQuery form data serializer, using the FormData API.
The logic in the serializer is largely based on the de-param function from a jQuery plugin called jQuery BBQ, however, all dependencies have been removed in this project.
This project can be found on NPM and Github:
https://github.com/GistApps/deep-serialize-form
https://www.npmjs.com/package/deep-serialize-form
function deepSerializeForm(form) {
var obj = {};
var formData = new FormData(form);
var coerce_types = { 'true': !0, 'false': !1, 'null': null };
/**
* Get the input value from the formData by key
* @return {mixed}
*/
var getValue = function(formData, key) {
var val = formData.get(key);
val = val && !isNaN(val) ? +val // number
: val === 'undefined' ? undefined // undefined
: coerce_types[val] !== undefined ? coerce_types[val] // true, false, null
: val; // string
return val;
}
for (var key of formData.keys()) {
var val = getValue(formData, key);
var cur = obj;
var i = 0;
var keys = key.split('][');
var keys_last = keys.length - 1;
if (/\[/.test(keys[0]) && /\]$/.test(keys[keys_last])) {
keys[keys_last] = keys[keys_last].replace(/\]$/, '');
keys = keys.shift().split('[').concat(keys);
keys_last = keys.length - 1;
} else {
keys_last = 0;
}
if ( keys_last ) {
for (; i <= keys_last; i++) {
key = keys[i] === '' ? cur.length : keys[i];
cur = cur[key] = i < keys_last
? cur[key] || (keys[i+1] && isNaN(keys[i+1]) ? {} : [])
: val;
}
} else {
if (Array.isArray(obj[key])) {
obj[key].push( val );
} else if (obj[key] !== undefined) {
obj[key] = [obj[key], val];
} else {
obj[key] = val;
}
}
}
return obj;
}
window.deepSerializeForm = deepSerializeForm;
Javascript / jQuery one-liner-ish - which works on older versions too (pre ES6):
$('form').serializeArray().reduce((f,c) => {f[c['name']]=(f[c['name']])?[].concat(f[c['name']],c['value']):c['value']; return f}, {} );
This uses the foreach method to iterate over the name and value pair returned by serializeArray and then return an object using the names as key.
let formData = $(this).serializeArray();
let formObject = {}
formData.forEach(
x=>formObject.hasOwnProperty(x.name)?formObject[x.name]=[formObject[x.name],x.value].flat():formObject[x.name]=x.value
);
I wouldn't use this on a live site due to XSS attacks and probably plenty of other issues, but here's a quick example of what you could do:
$("#myform").submit(function(){
var arr = $(this).serializeArray();
var json = "";
jQuery.each(arr, function(){
jQuery.each(this, function(i, val){
if (i=="name") {
json += '"' + val + '":';
} else if (i=="value") {
json += '"' + val.replace(/"/g, '\\"') + '",';
}
});
});
json = "{" + json.substring(0, json.length - 1) + "}";
// do something with json
return false;
});
This code working for me :
var data = $('#myForm input, #myForm select, #myForm textarea').toArray().reduce(function (m, e) {
m[e.name] = $(e).val();
return m;
}, {});
This code convert and save type of inputs and not convert all to string:
jQuery.fn.serializeForm = function () {
var form = this.get(0);
var i = [];
var ret = {};
for (i = form.elements.length - 1; i >= 0; i = i - 1) {
if (form.elements[i].name === "") {
continue;
}
var name = form.elements[i].name;
switch (form.elements[i].nodeName) {
case 'INPUT':
switch (form.elements[i].type) {
case 'text':
case 'tel':
case 'email':
case 'hidden':
case 'password':
ret[name] = encodeURIComponent(form.elements[i].value);
break;
case 'checkbox':
case 'radio':
ret[name] = form.elements[i].checked;
break;
case 'number':
ret[name] = parseFloat(form.elements[i].value);
break;
}
break;
case 'SELECT':
case 'TEXTAREA':
ret[name] = encodeURIComponent(form.elements[i].value);
break;
}
}
return ret;
};
For example this is output:
Day: 13
Key: ""
Month: 5
OnlyPayed: true
SearchMode: "0"
Year: 2021
instead of
Day: "13"
Key: ""
Month: "5"
OnlyPayed: "true"
SearchMode: "0"
Year: "2021"
This handles multiple select or even elements with the same name:
$.fn.formToJSON = function(){
pairStr=this.serialize();
let rObj={};
pairStr.split(`&`).forEach((vp)=> {
prop=vp.split(`=`)[0];
val=vp.split(`=`)[1];
if(rObj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
if (Array.isArray(rObj[prop])) {
rObj[prop].push(val);
} else {
rObj[prop]=[rObj[prop]];
rObj[prop].push(val);
}
} else {
rObj[prop]=val;
}
});
return JSON.stringify(rObj);
}
This thread seems to have become the collective FAQ for Form serialization :)
My Take on the PHP-Naming: <input name="user[name]" >
$('form').on('submit', function(ev) {
ev.preventDefault();
var obj = $(this).serializePHPObject();
// $.post('./', obj);
});
(function ($) {
// based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/25239999/1644202
// <input name="user[name]" >
$.fn.serializePHPObject = function () {
var obj = {};
$.each(this.serializeArray(), function (i, pair) {
var cObj = obj,
pObj,
cpName;
$.each(pair.name.split("["), function (i, pName) {
pName = pName.replace("]", "");
pObj = cObj;
cpName = pName;
cObj = cObj[pName] ? cObj[pName] : (cObj[pName] = {});
});
pObj[cpName] = pair.value;
});
return obj;
};
})(jQuery);
function serializedArray2Object(array){
let obj = {};
array.forEach(function(item){
if(obj[item['name']] === undefined){
obj[item['name']] = item['value'];
}else if(Array.isArray(obj[item['name']])){
obj[item['name']] = [...obj[item['name']],item['value']]
}else{
obj[item['name']] = [obj[item['name']],item['value']];
}
});
return obj;
}
using
serializedArray2Object($('#form').serializeArray())
I just discovered that function from jQuery and wrote a converter to object so the array becomes an object.