jquery: get value of custom attribute

You need some form of iteration here, as val (except when called with a function) only works on the first element:

$("input[placeholder]").val($("input[placeholder]").attr("placeholder"));

should be:

$("input[placeholder]").each( function () {
    $(this).val( $(this).attr("placeholder") );
});

or

$("input[placeholder]").val(function() {
    return $(this).attr("placeholder");
});

You can also do this by passing function with onclick event

<a onclick="getColor(this);" color="red">

<script type="text/javascript">

function getColor(el)
{
     color = $(el).attr('color');
     alert(color);
}

</script>