How to store value of input, not reference to...

Unknown

Let assume that i have page with inputs "username" and "email".

I want to store values from this inputs into some hash object:
var $values = {};
$values["username"] = _textbox("username").value;
$values["email"] = _textbox("email").value;

But, for example, $values["username"] store not value, but "_textbox("username").value".
This introduce some problems. For example if i goes to another page and trying to test follow:
_assertEqual($values["username"], "some value here")
I've got exception that "username" element doesn't exist.
My question is why? Why $values["username"] hold "reference" instead of value of element?

p.s. i don't want to use _set or _setGlobal. For some reasons i need (to make test easy and generic) to store many values in hash and then iterate over that hash.

Unknown

Seems like i have found the answer.
var $values = {};
_set($values["User Name"], _textbox("username").value); // <--- this will be converted into setServerValue

And then somewhere on another page we can correctly check for value:
_assertEqual($values["User Name"], _span("username"));

narayan

Yes xaka, you have to use _set there.

_textbox("username").value is a stub. It will fetch the right value only when used from inside a Browser Action API or when fetched via _set.

Regards,
Narayan