I would like to append fixtures in my functional test (based on LiipFunctionalTestBundle in symfony 2.8. Even it is a dev database I working on, I do still need to append the fixtures since I will have:

• regional data (country, region, county)
• vehicule brands and models
• ...

Consequently, having the DB purged after each functional test will not be nice for me.

NOTICE: Appending fixtures (without purging) through command line is working with success: php app/console doctrine:fixtures:load --append

So, below is my functional test:

<?php

namespace Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Controller;

use Liip\FunctionalTestBundle\Test\WebTestCase as WebTestCase;
//use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase as WebTestCase;
use Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData;
use Doctrine\Common\DataFixtures\Purger\ORMPurger;

class BrandControllerTest extends WebTestCase {

    public function setUp() {
        $this->auth = array(
            'PHP_AUTH_USER' => 'restapi',
            'PHP_AUTH_PW' => 'secretpw',
        );

        $this->client = static::createClient(array(), $this->auth);
    }

    public function testJsonGetPageAction() {
        $fixtures = array('Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData');
        $this->loadFixtures($fixtures);
        $brands = LoadBrandData::$brands;
        $brand = array_pop($brands);

        $route = $this->getUrl('api_1_brand_get_brand', array('id' => $brand->getId(), '_format' => 'json'));

        $this->client->request('GET', $route, array('ACCEPT' => 'application/json'));
        $response = $this->client->getResponse();
        $this->assertJsonResponse($response, 200);
        $content = $response->getContent();

        $decoded = json_decode($content, true);
        $this->assertTrue(isset($decoded['id']));
    }

    // ..
}

This test purges the DB. So, I tried the code proposed in link by doing this change:

// removed code
$fixtures = array('Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData');
$this->loadFixtures($fixtures);

// new code
$this->runCommand('doctrine:fixtures:load --append --no-interaction --fixtures=src/Minn/APIBundle/Tests/Fixtures/Entity/LoadBrandData.php');

But, functional test doest not work.

There was 1 error:

1) Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Controller\BrandControllerTest::testJsonGetPageAction
Error: Call to a member function getId() on null

/home/amine/NetBeansProjects/minnapi/src/Minn/APIBundle/Tests/Controller/BrandControllerTest.php:27

I tried to used options available in the function loadFixtures() by doing this change:

// removed code:
$fixtures = array('Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData');
$this->loadFixtures($fixtures);

// new code 
$fixtures = array('Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData');
$this->loadFixtures($fixtures, null,'doctrine', ORMPurger::PURGE_MODE_DELETE);

Verdict: DB is always purged after each run of the functional test.

So, any suggestions??

Thanks,

NB: bundles versions described in composer.json

    "doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle": "dev-master",
    "phpunit/phpunit": "5.4.*",
    "liip/functional-test-bundle":"1.6.*",
    "guzzle/guzzle": "v3.9.*"

The only solution to avoid having the database purged is to create a testing database. To do that, below are the steps:

config of a testing database

# the config has to be done in config_test.yml
doctrine:
    dbal:
        default_connection: default
        connections:
            default:
                driver:   pdo_mysql
                host:     "%database_host%"
                port:     "%database_port%"
                dbname:   test
                user:     "%database_user%"
                password: "%database_password%"
                charset:  UTF8

creation of the database and the tables

// this command is run only once (just for creating the testing db)
$ php app/console doctrine:database:create --env=test
// this command is needed when you have new entities
$ php app/console doctrine:schema:create --env=test

How to load fixtures in the test?

    $fixtures = array('Minn\APIBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Entity\LoadBrandData');
    $this->loadFixtures($fixtures);
    $brands = LoadBrandData::$brands;

Hope it will help others!