Cannot read property ‘viewContainerRef’ of undefined

I had the same problem. You have to add the directive into the AppModule:

 @NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,
    ...,
    YourDirective,
  ],
  imports: [
   ...
  ],
  providers: [...],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
  entryComponents: [components to inject if required]
})