Wrap bxSlider so that we can override options per slider with data attributes.

jquery.bxslider-alt.js

;(function ($) {
    /**
     * Return an object consisting of properties of 'data'
     * that match the regex 'pattern'. If trim is not false,
     * trim the matched 'pattern' from the property name,
     * and make the first char of the remaining property
     * name lowercase. 
     */
    function filterData(data, pattern, trim) {
        var data,
            prop, new_prop,
            matched_data = {};

        for (prop in data) {
            if (data.hasOwnProperty(prop) && prop.match(pattern) ) {
                if (trim) {
                    new_prop = prop.replace(pattern, '');
                    if ( ! new_prop.length ) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    new_prop = new_prop.charAt(0).toLowerCase() + new_prop.slice(1);
                    matched_data[new_prop] = data[prop];
                } else {
                    matched_data[prop] = data[prop];
                }
            }
        }

        return matched_data;
    }

    /**
     * Example Usage:
     * 
     * js:
     * $('.slider-element').bxSliderAlt({ slideWidth: 200 })
     * 
     * html:
     * <div class="slider-element" data-bx-slider-pager="false" data-bx-slider-slide-width="300">
     * ...
     * </div>
     */
    $.fn.bxSliderAlt = function (options) {

        if(this.length == 0) return this;

        if (typeof(options) == 'undefined') {
        	options = {};
        }

        this.each( function() {
            var data_options = filterData($(this).data(), /bxSlider/, true);
            var custom_options = $.extend({}, options, data_options);
            $(this).bxSlider(custom_options);
        });
    }
})(jQuery);

Thanks very much for this piece of brilliant code.

Thank you!

there is a bug:
#53 $.extend(options, data_options);
will change the original options object and all subsequent sliders will have all previous options. each slider should be initialized with it's own object. like so:

var custom_options = {}
$.extend(custom_options, options, data_options);
$(this).bxSlider(custom_options)}```

Thanks @ratron! I made that change.