Question

var $inputs = $('.add-item-form :input');

This gets all the input fields but also picks up the select fields which I do not want.

e.g.

<select><option>example</option></select>

Answer 1

:input is a jQuery-specific pseudo-selector for input, textarea, button, and select elements. So you could do this:

var $inputs = $('.add-item-form :input:not(select)');

…but you can also just call out specifically what you want:

var $inputs = $('.add-item-form input, .add-item-form textarea, .add-item-form button');

…which would have the advantage that if the browser supports querySelectorAll (and nearly all do, in standards mode), jQuery can just hand off to native handling (whereas :input is specific to jQuery, so can’t be handled by the browser’s native stuff).

Or, of course, if you don’t want textarea and button elements, it’s really simple:

var $inputs = $('.add-item-form input');

…and again that has the advantage of being handled by the browser’s optimized stuff where possible.