I\'m using a library that expects me to specify body of a directive as a child of template element
Try to look on lookedUpCustomElemRef inside ngAfterViewInit callback.
https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/api/core/index/ViewChild-decorator.html
You cannot get reference to component inside template until you don't create embedded view.
Try using setter like:
@ViewChild('lookup')
set lookUp(ref: any) {
console.log(ref);
}
Plunker Example