How to set initial values for Knockout's obser

Question

I am testing out the very awesome Knockoutjs. I am facing a peculiar problem.

I found a similar question: Binding initial/default value of dropdown (select) list, but it is not helping, as mine are cascading lists.

I make my initialModel as follows, using data from server.

var initialModel = @Html.Raw(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Model)) ;

Then I define my viewModel as follows.

    var viewModel = {
    evaluationGroups :ko.observableArray(initialModel.EvaluationGroups),
    SelectedEvaluationArea:ko.observable(initialModel.selectedEvaluationArea ? initialModel.selectedEvaluationArea.Id :null ),
    SelectedEvaluationGroup :ko.observable(initialModel.selectedEvaluationGroup)
}

Now, I want cascading select lists. Hence my binding is as under.

<fieldset>
            <legend>Evaluation Group and Area</legend>
            <p>
                <select id="EvaluationGroupId" name="EvaluationGroupId" data-bind='options: evaluationGroups, optionsText:"Title", value:SelectedEvaluationGroup,  optionsCaption: "Select Group..."'></select>
            </p>
             <p>
                <select id="EvaluationAreaId" name="EvaluationAreaId" data-bind='options: SelectedEvaluationGroup()? SelectedEvaluationGroup().EvaluationAreas:null,  optionsValue: "Id", optionsText:"Title", value:SelectedEvaluationArea,  optionsCaption: "Select Area..."'></select>
            </p>
            </fieldset>

The problem is, I am unable to extract the initial value from my server data. If I see, the value of viewModel.SelectedEvaluationGroup, when the page has just loaded, with default values, I see undefined. However, if I see initialModel.selectedEvaluationGroup, it is the full object, as expected. What am I doing wrong? Is this not the correct way to initialize Knockout's observables?

Answer 1

Maybe you have forgotten to run the applyBindings command?

i.e.

ko.applyBindings(viewModel);

Update

I have had a play with your jsfiddle. Seems it is happy to bind to initial values when it is manually set to ones from the main array.

http://jsfiddle.net/ZMvNM/5/