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+# <img src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/7833470/10899314/63829980-8188-11e5-8cdd-4ded5bcb6e36.png" height="60"> Custom & External Angular Directives
+
+Directives are snippets of HTML with their own custom JavaScript logic. Angular's concept of directives helps separate concerns and duties of code while making your views DRY and logic-less. Angular directives are very modular and can be added, shared, and swapped between projects. Check out <a href="http://ngmodules.org" target="_blank">ng-modules</a> to find popular Angular Directives to add to your projects.
+
+## Adding an External Directive
+
+Sometimes when you're looking to solve a problem, you find that another developer has already made a solution in the form of a directive. Now the challenge is how to include that directive in your project.
+
+1. Add the directive's file(s) to your project.
+2. Include the file(s) in `index.html`.
+3. Inject the directive into your app:
+
+  ```js
+  // app.js
+
+  angular.module('yourApp', ['ngResource', 'ngMap', 'pickadate', 'ui.bootstrap']);
+  ```
+
+## Making Your Own Directive
+
+### A Current Weather Example
+
+**Follow Along** by putting these code samples into an Angular project.
+
+> Reference: <a href="http://www.ng-newsletter.com/posts/directives.html" target="_blank">ng-newsletter blog post on directives</a>
+
+Imagine you wanted to make a box that displayed a city's current weather that was re-useable across pages for various cities. A directive would be a great solution! Let's look at how you'd build this directive that fetches a city's weather data and displays it on the page.
+
+Place this HTML anywhere inside your Angular controller:
+
+```html
+<!-- index.html -->
+
+<current-weather city="San Francisco"></current-weather>
+```
+
+Add this directive to your app:
+
+```js
+// app.js
+angular.module('yourApp', []);
+
+app.directive('currentWeather', function() {
+  return {
+    restrict: 'E',
+    scope: {
+      city: '@'
+    },
+    template: '<div class="current-weather"><h4>Weather for {{city}}</h4>{{weather.main.temp}}</div>',
+    // templateUrl: 'templates/currentWeatherTemplate.html',
+    // transclude: true,
+    controller: ['$scope', '$http',
+      function ($scope, $http) {
+        var url = "http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?mode=json&cnt=7&units=imperial&callback=JSON_CALLBACK&q=";
+        $scope.getWeather = function(city) {
+          $http({ method: 'JSONP', url: url + city })
+            .success(function(data) {
+              $scope.weather = data;
+            });
+        }
+    }],
+    link: function (scope, element, attrs) {
+      scope.weather = scope.getWeather(attrs.city);
+    }
+  }
+});
+```
+
+## Angular Directive Options
+
+#### Restrict
+
+The first option in an Angular directive is the `restrict` option. This option lets you specify how exactly you'd like to call the directive in HTML. See the options below; A and E are the most popular.
+
+```html
+'A' - <span ng-sparkline></span>
+'E' - <ng-sparkline></ng-sparkline>
+'C' - <span class="ng-sparkline"></span>
+'M' - <!-- directive: ng-sparkline -->
+```
+
+#### template and templateUrl
+
+Using the `template` and `templateUrl` options you can define an HTML template inside the directive's JS or in a separate HTML file in the templates folder.
+
+#### Scope inside a Directive
+
+But wait a sec, how do directives interact with the `$scope` set by the local controller? Can I get data from the local controller into my directive?
+
+By default, scopes do inherit the scope of their local controller just like they were HTML in the template. However, you can use the `scope` option to change this default behavior to isolate your directive's scope.
+
+1. `scope: true` - If scope is set to `true`, then the directive will have its own child scope that inherits from the parent scope of the local controller, meaning it can still access and change the parent scope.
+
+2. `scope: {}` - By passing an object to the `scope` option, you can define an **isolated scope**. Inside this object you can pass in three **aliases** indicating the expected datatype:
+
+  ```js
+  scope: {
+    ngModel: '=',     // provides two-way binding
+    onSend: '&',      // works with function calls
+    fromName: '@'     // reads attribute value
+  }
+  ```
+
+  ```html
+  <input type="text" ng-model="recipient.email">
+  <!-- invoke the directive -->
+  <div scope-example ng-model="recipient.email" on-send="sendMail()" from-name="ari@fullstack.io">
+  ```
+
+#### controller
+
+The controller option allows you to define a controller specific and isolated to the directive.
+
+#### link()
+
+The `link()` option is the meat and potatoes of the directive. Inside this function, you specify what you'd like the directive to do, and you can update scope.
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 6c693df..180a4c7 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -37,9 +37,13 @@
 * As you make code changes, frequently commit and push to GitHub.
 * Once you've finished the assignment and pushed your work to GitHub, make a pull request from your fork to the original repo.
 
-## Resources
+## Optional Practice
 
 * <a href="https://www.codeschool.com/courses/shaping-up-with-angular-js" target="_blank">Shaping up with Angular.js - Code School Tutorial</a>
+* [Custom Directives Reading](custom-directives.md)
+
+## Resources
+
 * <a href="https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/directive#what-are-directives-" target="_blank">AngularJS Developer Guide - Directives</a>
 * <a href="https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive" target="_blank">AngularJS API Reference - Directives</a>
 * <a href="https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/filter" target="_blank">AngularJS API Reference - Filter Components</a>