Initialize Knockout observable from element attribute value

Question

I have an element that possesses an attribute whose value is bound to a knockout observable:

Answer 1

the data-bind attributes are not parsed until you call ko.applyBindings(). So if you need to get attribute data off of your elements you can do it like this.

function MyModel(){
    this.textTransform = ko.observable($('#myElement').attr('transform'));
}

ko.applyBindings(new MyModel());

basically, you are grabbing the value of the attribute and setting it as the initial value of the observable. the data-bind attributes are meant to be a template, so initial or default values should be specified in your ViewModel.

the other option is to write a custom binder, that can store a default if the observable returns null...