Imitating file upload in a form while testing with CakePHP - php

Question

I'm developing a PHP application where I have a form in which the user should upload a text file and an other page works with this data. I'm also creating controller tests with CakePHP and PHPUnit. My question is, how can I make the test automatically upload a file for the tests of this action?
Thanks in advance.
update 1:
The question in more details: Basically I have a 'submit' action which has the form in its view which submits the parameters (and the uploaded file) to the 'curl' action. Here this curl action processes the uploaded text file and this is actually what I'd like to test. But to test this, I should have an uploaded file with its content, so a more specific question: how could I mock this uploaded file to 'submit' it to my curl controller?
Code snippet for the View:
...
echo '<fieldset><table>';
echo $this->Form->create('Job', array('type' => 'post','action' => 'curl', 'enctype' => 'multipart/form-data'));
echo $this->Form->input('user.name', array('type' => 'hidden', 'value' => $this->User->getCode1(),'name' => 'user.name'));
echo $this->Form->input('class', array('type' => 'hidden', 'value' => $this->Hadoop->getClass(), 'name' => 'class'));
...
update 2:
The test I've already written:
public function testCurl() {
$data = array(
'user_name' => ...,
'release' => ...,
'analysis_period_start' => ...,
'uploaded_file' => ???
);
$Jobs = $this->generate('Jobs', array('components' => array('Session')));
$Jobs->Session->expects($this->any())->method('setFlash');
$this->testAction('/jobs/curl', array('data' => $data, 'method' => 'post'));
}
So basically I'm trying to test my curl action with a POST method with the data provided in the $data variable. But I don't know how to mock/imitate an uploaded file into that array.
update 3:
The relevant cod snippet from my controller's given action:
public function curl() {
/* This action accepts only POST request */
if (!$this->isPOSTRequest())
return $this->redirect(array('controller' => 'jobs', 'action' => 'submit'));
/* Create a new entry in the database and get its ID */
$id = $this->createNewEntryInTheDatabase();
/* Inserts the new patterns into the DB and looks up the already existing
** patterns in the DB. Returns an array with the IDs of the submitted patterns */
$patternIds = $this->lookupPatternIDsAndInsertNewPatterns($_FILES['patterns']);
$curl = $this->initCURL();
...
$this->closeCURL($curl);
return $this->redirect(array('controller' => 'jobs', 'action' => 'submit'));
}
...
private function lookupPatternIDsAndInsertNewPatterns($patternsFile) {
$patternIDs = null;
/* One element for each row */
$patternsArray = $this->convertUploadedCSVFileIntoArray(
$patternsFile, $this->CSV->getDelimiter(),
$this->CSV->getEnclosure(), $this->CSV->getEscape());
...
return $patternIDs;
}
/* Returns the patterns from the CSV file in an array */
private function convertUploadedCSVFileIntoArray(
$patternsFile, $delimiter, $enclosure, $escape) {
$patternsArray = file($patternsFile['tmp_name']);
$patterns = null;
foreach ($patternsArray as $pattern)
$patterns[] = str_getcsv(
$pattern,
$delimiter,
$enclosure,
$escape);
return $patterns;
}