Added in support for basic JSON object parsing of data- attributes.

src/data.js

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 (function( jQuery ) {
 
 var windowData = {},
-	rnum = /^-?\d+(?:\.\d+)$/;
+	rnum = /^-?\d+(?:\.\d+)$/,
+	rbrace = /^{.*}$/;
 
 jQuery.extend({
 	cache: {},
@@ -153,11 +154,14 @@ jQuery.fn.extend({
 					data = this[0].getAttribute( "data-" + key );
 
 					if ( typeof data === "string" ) {
-						data = data === "true" ? true :
-							data === "false" ? false :
-							data === "null" ? null :
-							rnum.test( data ) ? parseFloat( data ) :
-							data;
+						try {
+							data = data === "true" ? true :
+								data === "false" ? false :
+								data === "null" ? null :
+								rnum.test( data ) ? parseFloat( data ) :
+								rbrace.test( data ) ? jQuery.parseJSON( data ) :
+								data;
+						} catch( e ) {}
 
 					} else {
 						data = undefined;

test/unit/data.js

@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ test(".data(String) and .data(String, Object)", function() {
 });
 
 test("data-* attributes", function() {
-	expect(22);
+	expect(23);
 	var div = jQuery("<div>"),
 		child = jQuery("<div data-myobj='old data' data-ignored=\"DOM\"></div>");
 
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ test("data-* attributes", function() {
 		.attr("data-point", "5.5")
 		.attr("data-pointbad", "5..5")
 		.attr("data-pointbad2", "-.")
+		.attr("data-badjson", "{123}")
 		.attr("data-null", "null")
 		.attr("data-string", "test");
 
@@ -195,6 +196,7 @@ test("data-* attributes", function() {
 	equals( child.data('point'), 5.5, "Primitive number read from attribute");
 	equals( child.data('pointbad'), "5..5", "Bad number read from attribute");
 	equals( child.data('pointbad2'), "-.", "Bad number read from attribute");
+	equals( child.data('badjson'), "{123}", "Bad number read from attribute");
 	equals( child.data('null'), null, "Primitive null read from attribute");
 	equals( child.data('string'), "test", "Typical string read from attribute");
 
@@ -213,7 +215,7 @@ test("data-* attributes", function() {
 			break;
 		case 2:
 			equals(jQuery(elem).data("zoooo"), "bar", "Check zoooo property");
-			equals(jQuery(elem).data("bar"), '{"test":"baz"}', "Check bar property");
+			same(jQuery(elem).data("bar"), {"test":"baz"}, "Check bar property");
 			break;
 		case 3:
 			equals(jQuery(elem).data("number"), true, "Check number property");