title: jQuery: Extend a DOM element with custom methods
body: <p>I have a couple of dom elements acting as placeholders for custom widgets. I'd like to extend them to give each type of widget a "setvalue" function like this:</p>
  
  <p><code>
  $.fn.extend($(".dial"), {
      setval: function(val) {
  });
  </code></p>
  
  <p>I don't want to extend <code>jQuery.fn</code> itself as different ypes of widgets require different <code>setval</code> methods.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to extend DOM elements of a particular type instead of extending <code>jQuery.fn</code> itself?</p>