knockoutjs databind with jquery controls

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6399078/knockoutjs-databind-with-jquery-controls

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.11/themes/base/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="http://knockoutjs.com/downloads/knockout-2.2.1.js"></script>
<input data-bind="datepicker: myDate, datepickerOptions: { minDate: new Date() , dateformat:'DD-MM-YYYY'}" />

<hr />

<button data-bind="click: setToCurrentDate">Set To Current Date</button>

<hr />

<div data-bind="text: myDate"></div>

CSS

td, th { padding: 5px; border: solid 1px black; }
th { color: #666; }
a { font-size: .75em; }

JavaScript

ko.bindingHandlers.datepicker = {
            init: function (element, valueAccessor, allBindingsAccessor) {
                //initialize datepicker with some optional options
                var options = allBindingsAccessor().datepickerOptions || {};

                var funcOnSelectdate = function () {
                    var observable = valueAccessor();
                    var d = $(element).datepicker("getDate");
                    var timeInTicks = d.getTime() + (-1 * (d.getTimezoneOffset() * 60 * 1000));
                    
                    observable("/Date(" + timeInTicks + ")/");
                }
                options.onSelect = funcOnSelectdate;

                $(element).datepicker(options);

                //handle the field changing
                ko.utils.registerEventHandler(element, "change", funcOnSelectdate);

                //handle disposal (if KO removes by the template binding)
                ko.utils.domNodeDisposal.addDisposeCallback(element, function () {
                    $(element).datepicker("destroy");
                });

            },
            update: function (element, valueAccessor) {
                var value = ko.utils.unwrapObservable(valueAccessor());

                //handle date data coming via json from Microsoft
                if (String(value).indexOf('/Date(') == 0) {
                    value = new Date(parseInt(value.replace(/\/Date\((.*?)\)\//gi, "$1")));
                }

                current = $(element).datepicker("getDate");

                if (value - current !== 0) {
                    $(element).datepicker("setDate", value);
                }
            }
        };

var viewModel = {
    myDate: ko.observable(new Date("09/01/2011")),
    setToCurrentDate: function() {
        this.myDate(new Date());
    }
};

ko.applyBindings(viewModel);