refactor: pass instantiated component to as_view (#664)

README.md

@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ And this is what gets rendered (plus the CSS and Javascript you've specified):
     - [See here how to migrate your settings.py](https://github.com/EmilStenstrom/django-components/blob/master/docs/migrating_from_safer_staticfiles.md)
 - Beside the top-level `/components` directory, you can now define also app-level components dirs, e.g. `[app]/components`
   (See [`COMPONENTS.app_dirs`](#app_dirs)).
+- When you call `as_view()` on a component instance, that instance will be passed to `View.as_view()`
 
 **Version 0.97**
 - Fixed template caching. You can now also manually create cached templates with [`cached_template()`](#template_cache_size---tune-the-template-cache)

src/django_components/component.py

@@ -252,6 +252,7 @@ class Component(Generic[ArgsType, KwargsType, DataType, SlotsType], metaclass=Co
         # See https://stackoverflow.com/a/76706399/9788634
         self.render_to_response = types.MethodType(self.__class__.render_to_response.__func__, self)  # type: ignore
         self.render = types.MethodType(self.__class__.render.__func__, self)  # type: ignore
+        self.as_view = types.MethodType(self.__class__.as_view.__func__, self)  # type: ignore
 
         self.registered_name: Optional[str] = registered_name
         self.outer_context: Context = outer_context or Context()
@@ -439,9 +440,15 @@ class Component(Generic[ArgsType, KwargsType, DataType, SlotsType], metaclass=Co
         """
         Shortcut for calling `Component.View.as_view` and passing component instance to it.
         """
+        # This method may be called as class method or as instance method.
+        # If called as class method, create a new instance.
+        if isinstance(cls, Component):
+            comp: Component = cls
+        else:
+            comp = cls()
+
         # Allow the View class to access this component via `self.component`
-        component = cls()
-        return component.View.as_view(**initkwargs, component=component)
+        return comp.View.as_view(**initkwargs, component=comp)
 
     @classmethod
     def render_to_response(

tests/test_component_as_view.py

@@ -160,6 +160,28 @@ class TestComponentAsView(BaseTestCase):
             response.content,
         )
 
+    def test_instantiate_component(self):
+        class MockComponentRequest(Component):
+            template = """
+                <form method="post">
+                    <input type="text" name="variable" value="{{ inner_var }}">
+                </form>
+                """
+
+            def get_context_data(self, variable):
+                return {"inner_var": variable}
+
+            def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs) -> HttpResponse:
+                return self.render_to_response(kwargs={"variable": self.name})
+
+        client = CustomClient(urlpatterns=[path("test/", MockComponentRequest("my_comp").as_view())])
+        response = client.get("/test/")
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertIn(
+            b'<input type="text" name="variable" value="my_comp">',
+            response.content,
+        )
+
     @parametrize_context_behavior(["django", "isolated"])
     def test_replace_slot_in_view(self):
         class MockComponentSlot(Component):