jQuery plugin to serialize a form and also restore/populate the form?

Question

Is there a jQuery plugin out there that can serialize a form, and then later restore/populate the form given the serialized value? I know the form plugin can serialize as a

Answer 1

Ive expanded upon Barnabas answer with the following:

1. Support multiple inputs with same name (checkboxes usually do this).

2. Cache selectors when possible, remove unneeded use of $

       /* jQuery.values: get or set all of the name/value pairs from child input controls   
        * @argument data {array} If included, will populate all child controls.
        * @returns element if data was provided, or array of values if not
       */
   
       $.fn.values = function(data) {
           var els = this.find(':input').get();
   
           if(arguments.length === 0) {
               // return all data
               data = {};
   
               $.each(els, function() {
                   if (this.name && !this.disabled && (this.checked
                                   || /select|textarea/i.test(this.nodeName)
                                   || /text|hidden|password/i.test(this.type))) {
                       if(data[this.name] == undefined){
                           data[this.name] = [];
                       }
                       data[this.name].push($(this).val());
                   }
               });
               return data;
           } else {
               $.each(els, function() {
                   if (this.name && data[this.name]) {
                       var names = data[this.name];
                       var $this = $(this);
                       if(Object.prototype.toString.call(names) !== '[object Array]'){
                           names = [names]; //backwards compat to old version of this code
                       }
                       if(this.type == 'checkbox' || this.type == 'radio') { 
                           var val = $this.val();
                           var found = false;
                           for(var i = 0; i < names.length; i++){
                               if(names[i] == val){
                                   found = true;
                                   break;
                               }
                           }
                           $this.attr("checked", found);
                       } else {
                           $this.val(names[0]);
                       }
                   }
               });
               return this;
           }
       };