Populate knockoutJS view model object based on an initial markup from the server
===

My web server returns a page with some structured markup. I need to use knockoutJS to have a markup representation at hand as a JSON object - knockout view model object.

The page basically has (right after initial loading) a `<div data-bind="foreach: ExistingNamings">` that has several enclosed divs that actually hold stuff that supposed to go into the ExistingNamings array on the view model object.

Can knockout "parse" and existing markup and populate view model based on the markup provided at the moment of calling `ko.applyBindings`?

P.S. My server side is ASP.NET MVC, and I've seen people suggesting http://knockoutmvc.com/ - an approach to generate initialization code for js file. This way it is "as if" view model is initialized via javascript. Is this the only way of dealing with initial data, or I indeed can parse markup? 
