diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index 4fe0531abaa1521ddb4df7a91fedf08603cb5b55..6d842d0ba05a68122e72025dfe8ee25d58d483e8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ ctools 6.x-1.0-dev
 #457376: Text fields need array defaults. This only broke in pgsql.
 Add a hook to allow other modules to cooperate a bit more easily with node page overriding.
 #472222: Prevent modules providing invalid user data from causing warnings in profile content.
+#478438 by nickl: Allow passing items to the data() element.
 
 ctools 6.x-1.0-beta3
 ==================
diff --git a/includes/ajax.inc b/includes/ajax.inc
index 4f8a4238f7a83d1b84ec93e79035cdca53998976..d3a9e2dae4af3ddd896620416726b7b85e97c8b9 100644
--- a/includes/ajax.inc
+++ b/includes/ajax.inc
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@
  * - settings
  *   - argument: An array of settings to add to Drupal.settings via $.extend
  *
+ * - data
+ *   - selector: The CSS selector. This can be any selector jquery uses in $().
+ *   - name: The name or key of the data attached to this selector.
+ *   - value: The value of the data. Not just limited to strings can be any format.
+ *
  * Commands are usually created with a couple of helper functions, so they
  * look like this:
  *
@@ -294,6 +299,28 @@ function ctools_ajax_command_settings($argument) {
   );
 }
 
+/**
+ * Create a data command for the AJAX responder.
+ *
+ * This will attach the name=value pair of data to the selector via
+ * jquery's data cache.
+ *
+ * @param $selector
+ *   The CSS selector. This can be any selector jquery uses in $().
+ * @param $name
+ *   The name or key: of the data attached to this selector.
+ * @param $value
+ *  The value of the data. Not just limited to strings can be any format.
+ */
+function ctools_ajax_command_data($selector, $name, $value) {
+  return array(
+    'command' => 'data',
+    'selector' => $selector,
+    'name' => $name,
+    'value' => $value,
+  );
+}
+
 /**
  * Force a table to be restriped.
  *
diff --git a/js/ajax-responder.js b/js/ajax-responder.js
index 5dfa9b2fab585a40190654145b597dfbd832aaa9..3e2084e1de2ee6d7a3838bfcd3829cb459f80953 100644
--- a/js/ajax-responder.js
+++ b/js/ajax-responder.js
@@ -210,6 +210,10 @@ Drupal.CTools.AJAX.commands = {
     $.extend(Drupal.settings, data.argument);
   },
 
+  data: function(data) {
+    $(data.selector).data(data.name, data.value);
+  },
+  
   restripe: function(data) {
     // :even and :odd are reversed because jquery counts from 0 and
     // we count from 1, so we're out of sync.