Get Value Of An Attribute

HTML

<a href="javascript:void(0)" class="our_jquery_dialog" title="The Title"  message="A message" usage_id="12345">Open The Form</a>

Javascript

var usage_id = $(this).attr("usage_id");

Get Value Of A Form TextArea

HTML

<textarea id='text_area_1' style='width:100%;' rows='2'>Default text</textarea>

Javascript

var new_text = $('textarea#text_area_1').val();