Allow injecting ComponentRef of a component through DI

Which @angular/* package(s) are relevant/related to the feature request?

core

Description

As of angular 14 we have the new super useful setInput on ComponentRef for dynamic components. It finally allows fully CD aware dynamic inputs changing. Currently if I want to extend a component with a directive and set inputs from it I need to do one of the two options:

1. Change the inputs statically in the constructor
2. Change inputs to get/set as ngOnChanges won’t fire

Proposed solution

Allowing to inject ComponentRef of the host component instead of the actual instance. This way we could just use setInput to update inputs and have a full CD aware binding support not through the template.

Alternatives considered

1. Change the inputs statically in the constructor only - Can’t apply to directive input based changes or observable based changes
2. Change inputs to get/set - Possible but annoying and “leaks” the knowledge of this component is being used from a directive outside. How can one explain why ngOnChanges was not used…
3. Maybe not through ComponentRef but as any other way to use setInput from DI injected components

[Harpush]

@pkozlowski-opensource sure. I had not a while ago a third party component with several inputs. We set all of them to the same values in most of the app. Now the idea I had is adding a directive that sets those inputs. The component is using ngOnChanges and not input get set so I got stuck. If I had a way to inject the component ref and call set input - the ngOnChanges would have been invoked.

[mikezks]

I agree, @Harpush.

@pkozlowski-opensource, this would make a lot of third-party integration szenarios easier. It would not make the learning-process for Angular beginnners harder, but would support advanced use-cases if needed.

As mentioned, IMHO it would fit well into the setInput API.