Subscribe to observable array for new or removed entry only

As of KnockoutJS 3.0, there's an arrayChange subscription option on ko.observableArray.

var myArray = ko.observableArray(["Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma"]);

myArray.subscribe(function(changes) {

    // For this example, we'll just print out the change info
    console.log(changes);

}, null, "arrayChange");

myArray.push("newitem!");

In the above callback, the changes argument will be an array of change objects like this:

[ 
   { 
      index: 3, 
      status: 'added', 
      value: 'newitem!' 
   }
]

For your specific problem, you want to be notified of new or removed items. To implement that using Knockout 3, it'd look like this:

myArray.subscribe(function(changes) {

    changes.forEach(function(change) {
        if (change.status === 'added' || change.status === 'deleted') {
            console.log("Added or removed! The added/removed element is:", change.value);
        }
    });

}, null, "arrayChange");

Since I couldn't find any info on this elsewhere, I'll add a reply for how to use this with TypeScript.

The key here was to use the KnockoutArrayChange interface as TEvent for subscribe. If you don't do that, it'll try to use the other (non-generic) subscribe and will complain about status, index, and value not existing.

class ZoneDefinition {
    Name: KnockoutObservable<String>;
}

class DefinitionContainer
{
    ZoneDefinitions: KnockoutObservableArray<ZoneDefinition>;
    constructor(zoneDefinitions?: ZoneDefinition[]){
        this.ZoneDefinitions = ko.observableArray(zoneDefinitions);
        // you'll get an error if you don't use the generic version of subscribe
        // and you need to use the KnockoutArrayChange<T> interface as T
        this.ZoneDefinitions.subscribe<KnockoutArrayChange<ZoneDefinition>[]>(function (changes) {
            changes.forEach(function (change) {
                if (change.status === 'added') {
                    // do something with the added value
                    // can use change.value to get the added item
                    // or change.index to get the index of where it was added
                } else if (change.status === 'deleted') {
                    // do something with the deleted value
                    // can use change.value to get the deleted item
                    // or change.index to get the index of where it was before deletion
                }
            });
        }, null, "arrayChange");
}

In order to only detect push() and remove() events, and not moving items, I put a wrapper around these observable array functions.

var trackPush = function(array) {
    var push = array.push;
    return function() {
        console.log(arguments[0]);
        push.apply(this,arguments);
    }
}
var list = ko.observableArray();
list.push = trackPush(list);

The original push function is stored in a closure, then is overlayed with a wrapper that allows me do do anything I want with the pushed item before, or after, it is pushed onto the array.

Similar pattern for remove().