Question

so lets say I wanted to essentially do this:

$.post(
    'search_item.php', 
    { 
        serialzed_data, 
        save: form.save.value, 
        is_correct: form.is_correct.value , 
        etc...
    }
)

What is the correct syntax to do so?

many thanks,

EDIT to specify:

lets say I have this:

$.post(
    'search_item.php', 
    { 
        'checks':post_data, 
        'option[]':option, 
        save: form.save.value, 
        item: form.item.value, 
        name: form.i_name.value, 
        desc: form.i_desc.value, 
        text: form.i_text.value 
    },
    function(output)    {
        $('#return2').html(output).show();
    });

now with that current .post I want to add this to it and post them together:

var serialized_data = $('input[name^="checks"]:checked').serialize();

can I do it?

EDIT latest attempt:

var post_data = $('input[name^="checks"]:checked').serialize();

        var data = $.extend({}, post_data, {
        'option[]':option, save: form.save.value, 
        item: form.item.value, 
        name: form.i_name.value, 
        desc: form.i_desc.value, 
        text: form.i_text.value
        });

        $.post('search_item.php', data ,
        function(output)    {
            $('#return2').html(output).show();
        });

Answer 1

You want to use serializeArray instead (.serialize turns the elements into a string, not an array) like so:

$.post('search_item.php', {
        serializedData: $('input[name^="checks"]:checked').serializeArray(),
        extraVar: value
    },
    function(output)    {
        $('#return2').html(output).show();
    });

The serializedData will be an array, not a ‘dictionary’, so you’ll have to parse it out on the other end.

Actually… .serialize would work just fine too. If you’re using PHP on the backend, you’d just have to pass it through parse_str.

or you can make an actual object of key/value pairs and go with Phil’s solution using this.