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The BrowserKit Component

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Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 6.1 (the current stable version).

The BrowserKit Component

The BrowserKit component simulates the behavior of a web browser, allowing you to make requests, click on links and submit forms programmatically.

Installation

You can install the component in two different ways:

Basic Usage

Creating a Client

The component only provides an abstract client and does not provide any backend ready to use for the HTTP layer.

To create your own client, you must extend the abstract Client class and implement the doRequest() method. This method accepts a request and should return a response:

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namespace Acme;

use Symfony\Component\BrowserKit\Client as BaseClient;
use Symfony\Component\BrowserKit\Response;

class Client extends BaseClient
{
    protected function doRequest($request)
    {
        // ... convert request into a response

        return new Response($content, $status, $headers);
    }
}

For a simple implementation of a browser based on the HTTP layer, have a look at Goutte. For an implementation based on HttpKernelInterface, have a look at the Client provided by the HttpKernel component.

Making Requests

Use the request() method to make HTTP requests. The first two arguments are the HTTP method and the requested URL:

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use Acme\Client;

$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');

The value returned by the request() method is an instance of the Crawler class, provided by the DomCrawler component, which allows accessing and traversing HTML elements programmatically.

The Crawler object is capable of simulating link clicks. First, pass the text content of the link to the selectLink() method, which returns a Link object. Then, pass this object to the click() method, which performs the needed HTTP GET request to simulate the link click:

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use Acme\Client;

$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');
$link = $crawler->selectLink('Go elsewhere...')->link();
$client->click($link);

Submitting Forms

The Crawler object is also capable of selecting forms. First, select any of the form's buttons with the selectButton() method. Then, use the form() method to select the form which the button belongs to.

After selecting the form, fill in its data and send it using the submit() method (which makes the needed HTTP POST request to submit the form contents):

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use Acme\Client;

// make a real request to an external site
$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://github.com/login');

// select the form and fill in some values
$form = $crawler->selectButton('Log in')->form();
$form['login'] = 'symfonyfan';
$form['password'] = 'anypass';

// submit that form
$crawler = $client->submit($form);

Cookies

Retrieving Cookies

The Client implementation exposes cookies (if any) through a CookieJar, which allows you to store and retrieve any cookie while making requests with the client:

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use Acme\Client;

// Make a request
$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');

// Get the cookie Jar
$cookieJar = $client->getCookieJar();

// Get a cookie by name
$cookie = $cookieJar->get('name_of_the_cookie');

// Get cookie data
$name       = $cookie->getName();
$value      = $cookie->getValue();
$raw        = $cookie->getRawValue();
$secure     = $cookie->isSecure();
$isHttpOnly = $cookie->isHttpOnly();
$isExpired  = $cookie->isExpired();
$expires    = $cookie->getExpiresTime();
$path       = $cookie->getPath();
$domain     = $cookie->getDomain();

Note

These methods only return cookies that have not expired.

Looping Through Cookies

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use Acme\Client;

// Make a request
$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');

// Get the cookie Jar
$cookieJar = $client->getCookieJar();

// Get array with all cookies
$cookies = $cookieJar->all();
foreach ($cookies as $cookie) {
    // ...
}

// Get all values
$values = $cookieJar->allValues('http://symfony.com');
foreach ($values as $value) {
    // ...
}

// Get all raw values
$rawValues = $cookieJar->allRawValues('http://symfony.com');
foreach ($rawValues as $rawValue) {
    // ...
}

Setting Cookies

You can also create cookies and add them to a cookie jar that can be injected into the client constructor:

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use Acme\Client;

// create cookies and add to cookie jar
$cookieJar = new Cookie('flavor', 'chocolate', strtotime('+1 day'));

// create a client and set the cookies
$client = new Client(array(), array(), $cookieJar);
// ...

History

The client stores all your requests allowing you to go back and forward in your history:

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use Acme\Client;

// make a real request to an external site
$client = new Client();
$client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');

// select and click on a link
$link = $crawler->selectLink('Documentation')->link();
$client->click($link);

// go back to home page
$crawler = $client->back();

// go forward to documentation page
$crawler = $client->forward();

You can delete the client's history with the restart() method. This will also delete all the cookies:

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use Acme\Client;

// make a real request to an external site
$client = new Client();
$client->request('GET', 'http://symfony.com');

// delete history
$client->restart();

Learn more

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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