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.

Convert forms to JSON like a boss

The current source is on GitHub and Bower.

$ bower install jquery-serialize-object

The following code is now deprecated.

The following code can take work with all sorts of input names; and handle them just as you'd expect.

For example:

<!-- All of these will work! --><input name="honey[badger]" value="a"><input name="wombat[]" value="b"><input name="hello[panda][]" value="c"><input name="animals[0][name]" value="d"><input name="animals[0][breed]" value="e"><input name="crazy[1][][wonky]" value="f"><input name="dream[as][vividly][as][you][can]" value="g">

// Output{  "honey":{    "badger":"a"  },  "wombat":["b"],  "hello":{    "panda":["c"]  },  "animals":[    {      "name":"d",      "breed":"e"    }  ],  "crazy":[    null,    [      {"wonky":"f"}    ]  ],  "dream":{    "as":{      "vividly":{        "as":{          "you":{            "can":"g"          }        }      }    }  }}

Usage

$('#my-form').serializeObject();

The Sorcery (JavaScript)

(function($){    $.fn.serializeObject = function(){        var self = this,            json = {},            push_counters = {},            patterns = {                "validate": /^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*(?:\[(?:\d*|[a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\])*$/,                "key":      /[a-zA-Z0-9_]+|(?=\[\])/g,                "push":     /^$/,                "fixed":    /^\d+$/,                "named":    /^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$/            };        this.build = function(base, key, value){            base[key] = value;            return base;        };        this.push_counter = function(key){            if(push_counters[key] === undefined){                push_counters[key] = 0;            }            return push_counters[key]++;        };        $.each($(this).serializeArray(), function(){            // Skip invalid keys            if(!patterns.validate.test(this.name)){                return;            }            var k,                keys = this.name.match(patterns.key),                merge = this.value,                reverse_key = this.name;            while((k = keys.pop()) !== undefined){                // Adjust reverse_key                reverse_key = reverse_key.replace(new RegExp("\\[" + k + "\\]$"), '');                // Push                if(k.match(patterns.push)){                    merge = self.build([], self.push_counter(reverse_key), merge);                }                // Fixed                else if(k.match(patterns.fixed)){                    merge = self.build([], k, merge);                }                // Named                else if(k.match(patterns.named)){                    merge = self.build({}, k, merge);                }            }            json = $.extend(true, json, merge);        });        return json;    };})(jQuery);

What's wrong with:

var data = {};$(".form-selector").serializeArray().map(function(x){data[x.name] = x.value;});