@workInProgress
@ngdoc overview
@name Developer Guide: Angular HTML Compiler: Understanding Angular Widgets
@description

Widgets are DOM elements that the browser doesn't already understand. Angular provides some
built-in widgets (such as {@link api/angular.widget.@ng:repeat ng:repeat}), and you can create your
own custom widgets.

Widgets are intended to manipulate the DOM tree by adding new elements (unlike {@link
dev_guide.compiler.directives angular directives}, which are intended to modify only element
properties).

Widgets come in two types:

* Element Widget — A custom DOM element.  An example of a custom element is shown in {@link
dev_guide.compiler.widgets.creating_widgets Creating Custom Widgets}.

* Attribute Widget — A custom attribute on an existing DOM element.  An attribute widget is similar
to an angular directive, with the main difference being that an attribute widget will always be
processed before any directives that are specified on the same element.  Only one attribute widget
is allowed per element.  An example of an attribute widget is shown in {@link
dev_guide.compiler.widgets.creating_widgets Creating Custom Widgets}.



## Related Topics

* {@link dev_guide.compiler Angular HTML Compiler}
* {@link dev_guide.compiler.directives Angular Directives}
* {@link dev_guide.compiler.widgets.creating_widgets Creating Custom Widgets}
* {@link dev_guide.compiler.directives.creating_directives Creating Custom Directives}

## Related API

* {@link api/angular.compile Compiler API}
