Unable to use ContentChildren with ngForTemplate

I’m submitting a … (check one with “x”)

[x] bug report => search github for a similar issue or PR before submitting
[ ] feature request
[ ] support request => Please do not submit support request here, instead see https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#question

Current behavior Getting directives with @ContentChildren does not work when the directives were created using ngForTemplate.

Expected behavior Directives inside repeated templates using ngForTemplate should be picked up by @ContentChildren like they would if you were using ng-content.

Minimal reproduction of the problem with instructions https://plnkr.co/edit/pt3fgjvL7yREdHKWl8IZ?p=preview

Check src/app.ts. You’ll see that the Marker directive is being repeated by the template passed to Repeater, but Repeater cannot use @ContentChildren to query for Markers.

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior? In general, this seems like it should work. My specific use case is making a pair of components, each that use ngForTemplate with one used inside the others template. Together they allow filtering of a collection whose items have sub-items. One feature is that if all items have been filtered out (IE, no matching results) a message should be shown. I would assume the way to do this would be to query for items from the parent and subscribe to changes.

Please tell us about your environment: Reproducible in Plunker.

• Angular version: 2.0.X 2.0.1
• Browser: [all | Chrome XX | Firefox XX | IE XX | Safari XX | Mobile Chrome XX | Android X.X Web Browser | iOS XX Safari | iOS XX UIWebView | iOS XX WKWebView ] Tested in Chrome
• Language: TypeScript 2
• Node (for AoT issues): node --version =

[timblakely]

I think I ran into this while exploring using ViewChildren/ContentChildren within custom structural directives. It appears ViewChildren and ContentChildren can’t see into views created by createEmbeddedView.

Plunker here. Parent can’t see a grandchild in either ViewChildren or ContentChildren. And a directive on the Child cannot see anything except a TemplateRef (see console logs).

[angular-automatic-lock-bot[bot]]

This issue has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Please file a new issue if you are encountering a similar or related problem.

Read more about our automatic conversation locking policy.

_{This action has been performed automatically by a bot.}