can anybody explain the difference between directives and templates in angularjs?
I know that directives can e.g. custom tags. but templates are tags, too. so what is the difference between directive tags or template tags?
Templates are not custom tags. Directives are called (either via custom attributes, classes or as a custom element) and contain code for interacting with the DOM and may include templates. Templates are either a string of HTML or a file containing HTML.
A template is a chunk of HTML, a directive is a "widget" (a self contained functional module), that may include UI, that can be added to a page or template.
It's pretty recursive, as directives can contain templates, and vice-versa.
A directive is simply a way to define new types of html elements specific to your application. It is a way of teaching html new tricks as some angularjs heads would say. Templates on the other hand are snippets of injectable HTML code that can act as a UI for directives and views.
Directives can be used to create self-containing webpage components/ widgets by feeding it with templates that describe how the widget's UI should look like.
this tutorial really simplified things for me