directives, and managing the size of the root module.
## Feature modules vs. root modules
A feature module is an organizational best practice, as opposed to a concept of the core Angular API. A feature module delivers a cohesive set of functionality focused on a
specific application need such as a user workflow, routing, or forms.
While you can do everything within the root module, feature modules
This causes the CLI to create a folder called `customer-dashboard` with a file inside called `customer-dashboard.module.ts` with the following contents:
The structure of an NgModule is the same whether it is a root module or a feature module. In the CLI generated feature module, there are two JavaScript import statements at the top of the file: the first imports `NgModule`, which, like the root module, lets you use the `@NgModule` decorator; the second imports `CommonModule`, which contributes many common directives such as `ngIf` and `ngFor`. Feature modules import `CommonModule` instead of `BrowserModule`, which is only imported once in the root module. `CommonModule` only contains information for common directives such as `ngIf` and `ngFor` which are needed in most templates, whereas `BrowserModule` configures the Angular application for the browser which needs to be done only once.
The `declarations` array is available for you to add declarables, which
are components, directives, and pipes that belong exclusively to this particular module. To add a component, enter the following command at the command line where `customer-dashboard` is the directory where the CLI generated the feature module and `CustomerDashboard` is the name of the component:
```sh
ng generate component customer-dashboard/CustomerDashboard
```
This generates a folder for the new component within the customer-dashboard folder and updates the feature module with the `CustomerDashboardComponent` info:
The `CustomerDashboardComponent` is now in the JavaScript import list at the top and added to the `declarations` array, which lets Angular know to associate this new component with this feature module.
To incorporate the feature module into your app, you have to let the root module, `app.module.ts`, know about it. Notice the `CustomerDashboardModule` export at the bottom of `customer-dashboard.module.ts`. This exposes it so that other modules can get to it. To import it into the `AppModule`, add it to the imports in `app.module.ts` and to the `imports` array:
Now the `AppModule` knows about the feature module. If you were to add any service providers to the feature module, `AppModule` would know about those too, as would any other feature modules. However, NgModules don’t expose their components by default.
## Rendering a feature module’s component template
When the CLI generated the `CustomerDashboardComponent` for the feature module, it included a template, `customer-dashboard.component.html`, with the following markup:
To see this HTML in the `AppComponent`, you first have to export the `CustomerDashboardComponent` in the `CustomerDashboardModule`. In `customer-dashboard.module.ts`, just beneath the `declarations` array, add an `exports` array containing `CustomerDashboardComponent`:
