Microdata spec: input element attributes as data values

[ajacksified]

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#values

In the microdata spec, the values of itemprops are defined for certain elements, and there is, at the end, a catch-all for undefined elements to use the text value. However, there are some elements that have values in the DOM but no text values- specifically, input, textarea, and select.

I've come across a use case recently where it'd be useful to be able to define textboxes as properties - using a microdata-to-JSON parser to submit a form in JSON mode using Ajax, and then deserializing it on the server. Though this specific case may be a bit of an edge case, the intended use for Microdata is to define a machine-readable structure. Excluding these- or any- element seems like an oversight.

Does anyone have any clarification on why they're not included (for example, am I looking at it too generically?) or have any comments?

[zcorpan]

The reason the form-related elements aren't included is that there were no use cases that needed them. You should elaborate on your use case on the mailing list if you want this changed in the spec.