Integration of Mike Alsup's excellent form serialization code. The benefits are as follows:

- New method: .serializeArray()
This returns an array of name/value pairs representing the contents of a form, or individual input elements.
- Enhancement: .serialize()
The results are correct now (as opposed to the mess from before), and allows you to serializes forms directly (rather than just the input elements).
- Enhancement: .val()
This now returns the correct value when dealing wih selects. Additionally, when dealing with multiple selects, it returns an array of values.

Based upon Mike's code:
http://malsup.com/jquery/form/comp/form.js

and test suite:
http://malsup.com/jquery/form/comp/test.html

2 files changed, 46 insertions, 10 deletions

diff --git a/src/ajax/ajax.js b/src/ajax/ajax.js
index dd54d0c30..ffe30481d 100644
--- a/src/ajax/ajax.js
+++ b/src/ajax/ajax.js
@@ -62,9 +62,25 @@ jQuery.fn.extend({
 	},
 
 	serialize: function() {
-		return jQuery.param( this );
-	}
-
+		return jQuery.param(this.serializeArray());
+	},
+
	serializeArray: function() {

+		return this.map(function(){
+			return jQuery.nodeName(this, "form") ?
+				jQuery.makeArray(this.elements) : this;
+		})
+		.filter(function(){
+			return this.name && !this.disabled && 
+				(this.checked || /select|textarea/i.test(this.nodeName) || 
+					/text|hidden|password/i.test(this.type));
+		})
+		.map(function(i, elem){
			var val = jQuery(this).val();
+			return val == null ? null :
+				val.constructor == Array ?
+					jQuery.map( val, function(i, val){
						return {name: elem.name, value: val};
+					}) :
+					{name: elem.name, value: val};

+		}).get();
	}
 });
 
 // Attach a bunch of functions for handling common AJAX events
@@ -440,7 +456,7 @@ jQuery.extend({
 					s.push( encodeURIComponent(j) + "=" + encodeURIComponent( a[j] ) );
 
 		// Return the resulting serialization
-		return s.join("&");
+		return s.join("&").replace(/%20/g, "+");
 	}
 
 });
diff --git a/src/ajax/ajaxTest.js b/src/ajax/ajaxTest.js
index c694cc127..f158bae21 100644
--- a/src/ajax/ajaxTest.js
+++ b/src/ajax/ajaxTest.js
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ module("ajax");
 // Safari 3 randomly crashes when running these tests,
 // but only in the full suite - you can run just the Ajax
 // tests and they'll pass
-if ( !jQuery.browser.safari ) {
+//if ( !jQuery.browser.safari ) {
 
 test("$.ajax() - success callbacks", function() {
 	expect( 8 );
@@ -163,11 +163,31 @@ test("$.ajax - dataType html", function() {
 });
 
 test("serialize()", function() {
-	expect(1);
-	// ignore button, IE takes text content as value, not relevant for this test
-	equals( $(':input').not('button').serialize(), 
-		'action=Test&text2=Test&radio1=on&radio2=on&check=on&=on&hidden=&foo%5Bbar%5D=&name=name&=foobar&select1=&select2=3&select3=1&test=&id=', 
+	expect(6);
+	
+	equals( $('#form').serialize(),
+		"action=Test&radio2=on&check=on&hidden=&foo%5Bbar%5D=&name=name&select1=&select2=3&select3=0&select3=1",
+		'Check form serialization as query string');
+		
+	equals( $('#form :input').serialize(),
+		"action=Test&radio2=on&check=on&hidden=&foo%5Bbar%5D=&name=name&select1=&select2=3&select3=0&select3=1",
+		'Check input serialization as query string');
+	
+	equals( $('#testForm').serialize(), 
+		'T3=%3F%0AZ&H1=x&H2=&PWD=&T1=&T2=YES&My+Name=me&S1=abc&S3=YES&S4=', 
 		'Check form serialization as query string');
+		
+	equals( $('#testForm :input').serialize(), 
+		'T3=%3F%0AZ&H1=x&H2=&PWD=&T1=&T2=YES&My+Name=me&S1=abc&S3=YES&S4=', 
+		'Check input serialization as query string');
+		
+	equals( $('#form, #testForm').serialize(),
+		"action=Test&radio2=on&check=on&hidden=&foo%5Bbar%5D=&name=name&select1=&select2=3&select3=0&select3=1&T3=%3F%0AZ&H1=x&H2=&PWD=&T1=&T2=YES&My+Name=me&S1=abc&S3=YES&S4=",
+		'Multiple form serialization as query string');
+		
+	equals( $('#form, #testForm :input').serialize(),
+		"action=Test&radio2=on&check=on&hidden=&foo%5Bbar%5D=&name=name&select1=&select2=3&select3=0&select3=1&T3=%3F%0AZ&H1=x&H2=&PWD=&T1=&T2=YES&My+Name=me&S1=abc&S3=YES&S4=",
+		'Mixed form/input serialization as query string');
 });
 
 test("$.param()", function() {
@@ -618,4 +638,4 @@ test("custom timeout does not set error message when timeout occurs, see #970",
 
 }
 
-}
+//}