I'm confused about how associative indexing and javascript. 

In my javascript, I do this: 

```
$("input[type=button]").click(function () {
    var checked = {};
    $('input[type=checkbox]').each(function() {
        if ($(this).is(':checked')) {
            checked[$(this).attr('name')] = $(this).val();
        }
    });

    var value = [];
    value.push($(this).siblings("input[type=text]").val());

    $.ajax({ url: "scripts/php/generatehtml.php",
        data: {action: value},
        type: 'post',
        dataType: "json",
        success: ...<cut for brevity>});

```

So in my PHP code, I do this: 

```
if (isset($_POST['action']) && !empty($_POST['action'])) {
    var_dump($_POST['action']);
}

```

And get this: 

```
array(1) {
[0]=>
  string(5) "12277"
 }

```

As you can see, that's an indexed array, I want an associative array.
But whenver I do something like: 

```
value['id'] = $(this).siblings("input[type=text]").val()

```

Nothing gets sent. 

I'm not very good wtih Ajax, and any help here would be really great! 

NOTE: I did look at the other ajax array answers, but I don't think they answer my question.