Introduction to Application Tests in Symfony

Now that our job application form is in place, it’s time to start testing it - and we’re going to begin with an application test.

In Symfony, an application test (sometimes called a feature test) interacts with your app in the same way a real user or browser would:

It makes an HTTP request, gets a response, and inspects that response for the expected content.

In this lesson, we’ll:

• Use Symfony’s WebTestCase to spin up a test client that can send real HTTP requests into our app.
• Request the /apply page and confirm it loads successfully.
• Check that the form’s main heading is correct.
• Verify that each expected form field is present:
  • first_name
  • last_name
  • email
  • cv upload field
• Ensure the Submit button exists.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll have written your first Symfony application test and seen how easy it is to simulate a real user interacting with your app - without ever opening a browser.

In the next steps, we’ll build on this by testing more complex scenarios like form submissions, validation, and database persistence.