symfony WebTestCase client does not send post data - testing

Question

I'm currently writing functionnal tests for my symfony app. I use symfony 3 (3.1.6) with phpunit 5.6.1.
Edit : As requested by Alvin Bunk, my app is not a website, it is an API that returns only JSON. As i added in the two updates below, the Symfony test client sends a proper request object with the form data but the controller of the app receives an empty object.
Here is the code i use to test my form :
public function testSaveMediaFromMediaUrl()
{
$client = static::createClient();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', '/form');
$form = $crawler->selectButton('OK')->form();
$form['mediaUrl'] = 'http://example.com';
$client->submit($form);
var_dump($client->getResponse()->getContent());
}
The correct action of my controller is called but there is nothing in the request object when the action is called from the tests suite. using a regular web browser, everything works fine. In the controller, I use $request = Request::createFromGlobals(); to create the request object
I also tried this code to post the data and I get the same result : no POST data is received in the controller.
direct post request without using the form
public function testSaveMediaFromMediaUrl()
{
$client = static::createClient();
$crawler = $client->request('POST', '/media', ['mediaUrl' => 'http://example.com']);
var_dump($crawler->html());
}
adding the data in the submit method
public function testSaveMediaFromMediaUrl()
{
$client = static::createClient();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', '/form');
$form = $crawler->selectButton('OK')->form();
$client->submit($form, ['mediaUrl' => 'http://example.com']);
var_dump($client->getResponse()->getContent());
}
Is there something I'm doing wrong ?
EDIT:
Here is the dump of the request object I get in the controller action.
.object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request)#1047 (21) {
["attributes"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag)#1050 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["request"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag)#1048 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["query"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag)#1049 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["server"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ServerBag)#1053 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(35) {[...]}
}
["files"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\FileBag)#1052 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["cookies"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag)#1051 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["headers"]=>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\HeaderBag)#1054 (2) {
["headers":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
["cacheControl":protected]=>
array(0) {
}
}
["content":protected]=>
NULL
["languages":protected]=>
NULL
["charsets":protected]=>
NULL
["encodings":protected]=>
NULL
["acceptableContentTypes":protected]=>
NULL
["pathInfo":protected]=>
NULL
["requestUri":protected]=>
NULL
["baseUrl":protected]=>
NULL
["basePath":protected]=>
NULL
["method":protected]=>
NULL
["format":protected]=>
NULL
["session":protected]=>
NULL
["locale":protected]=>
NULL
["defaultLocale":protected]=>
string(2) "en"
}
Edit-2:
Here is the dump of the request object sent by the client (in the test case : var_dump($client->getRequest()->request);) :
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag)#753 (1) {
["parameters":protected]=>
array(4) {
["mediaUrl"]=>
string(41) "http://example.com"
["url"]=>
string(0) ""
["token"]=>
string(0) ""
["sizes"]=>
string(0) ""
}
}
The "test browser" seems sends the form data to the app...

Answer 1

Problem solved :
In my controller, I used $request = Request::createFromGlobals() as written in the doc. I removed this line and added $request as a parameter of the controller action and now the request contains the POST data sent by the test client.
My action is now defined like this :
public function generateAction(Request $request) {
// no more $request = Request::createFromGlobals();
$request->request->get('mediaUrl'); // contains data
}

Answer 2

usually a post request to a form return a redirect, if so check that the redirect is the correct response and follow the redirection, as example:
$client->submit($form);
$this->assertTrue($client->getResponse()->isRedirect());
$this->crawler = $client->followRedirect();
Hope this help
EDIT:
Another way could be:
$form = $crawler->selectButton('OK')->form(array(
'mediaUrl' => 'http://example.com')
);
$client->submit($form);