Why do the serialize functions only work on forms? People are moving away from forms. They are not needed with ajax. Why put useless restrictions on jquery. Here are some quick fixes or alternative for people to use. I understand it is easy to loop throught the elements array of a form.

jQuery.fn._serializeArray=function()

{

return this.map(

function()

{

var name=$(this).attr('name');

var type=$(this).attr('type');

var val=$(this).val();

var checked=$(this).attr('checked');

if(type=='checkbox' && !checked)

return;

return {name:name,value:val};

}

);

};

jQuery.fn._serialize=function()

{

return this.map(

function()

{

var name=$(this).attr('name');

var type=$(this).attr('type');

var val=$(this).val();

var checked=$(this).attr('checked');

if(type=='checkbox' && !checked)

return;

return escape(name)+'='+escape(val);

}

).get().join('&');

};