Question

By default, KO “will only render the template for the new item and will insert it into the existing DOM”.

Is there a way to disable this feature (as in, force KO to render all items anew)?

Answer 1

If you use jQuery.tmpl’s native {{each koObservableArray()}} syntax Knockout cant update single items but must rerender the entire template

see more here: http://knockoutjs.com/documentation/template-binding.html

the template engine’s native ‘each’ support: after any change, the
template engine is forced to re-render everything because it isn’t
aware of KO’s dependency tracking mechanism.

You only get the “default” behavior if you use the foreach template mode, i.e.:

<div data-bind='template: { name: "personTemplate", 
                            foreach: someObservableArrayOfPeople }'> </div>