#Heres a quick mock up of an idea to use fixtures in a non-symfony way to aid in unit testing. The Unit testing fixtures wont get mixed up with application oriented fixtures.

CustomerPurchaseControlTest.php

<?php
#Tests/Service/CustomerPurchaseControlTest.php

namespace CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Service;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase;

use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Job\LoadJobQueueControlTestData;
use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Model\Cart\ActiveCart;
use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Entity\Purchase;

class CustomerPurchaseControlTest extends WebTestCase
{

    protected $data = array();
    
    protected $kernel;
    

    //You could put this data in the actual fixture but I think its much more convenient to keep it in the actual test and just load it into the fixture on-demand. For maintaining the code it just makes it easier if the unit tests are more self contained.

    public static function purchaseProvider()
    {
        return 
            array(
                'activePurchases' => array(
                  array(
                    'executable'  => 'console purchase:test1',
                    'type'        => 'Goods',
                    'active'      => 1,
                  ),
                  array(
                    'executable'  => 'console purchase:test2',
                    'type'        => 'Services',
                    'active'      => 1,
                  ),
                  array(
                    'executable'  => 'console purchase:test3',
                    'type'        => 'Credits',
                    'active'      => 1,
                  ),
                  array(
                    'executable'  => 'console purchase:test4',
                    'type'        => 'Rebate',
                    'active'      => 1,
                  ),  
                ),
            );
    }
    
    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->kernel = $this->createKernel(array('environment' => 'test'));
        $this->kernel->boot();
        $this->container = $this->kernel->getContainer();
    }

    public function tearDown()
    {
        unset($this->container);
    }
    
    /**
     * @dataProvider purchaseProvider
     */
    public function testRunActiveCart($p1, $p2, $p3, $p4)
    {

        //loads up the fixtures
        $em = $this->container->get('doctrine')->getEntityManager();
        $activeCart = array($p1, $p2, $p3, $p4);
        $fixtures = new LoadPurchaseControlTestData($this->kernel);
        $fixtures->setData($activeCart); 
        $this->data = $fixtures->load($em);
        
        // Once the fixtures are loaded you can test your data
        $this->container->get('cart.control')->checkout();
        
        $result = array();
        $repo = $em->getRepository('CommerceBundle:Purchase');
        foreach ($this->data as $record) {
            array_push($result, $repo->findOneById($record->getId())->getStatus());
        }
        $this->assertTrue((count(array_keys($result, 'success')) ===  4), "");
    }

    

}

LoadPurchaseControlTestData.php

<?php
#Tests/Fixtures/Purchase/LoadPurchaseControlTestData.php

namespace CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Purchase;

use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Job\LoadPurchaseTestData;

class LoadPurchaseControlTestData extends LoadPurchaseTestData
{

    //The final class has a 1 to 1 relationship with the unit test. Only the unit test with the same name will use this fixture.
    //all data customizations go here.
    //this ones needs the kernel to do some data treatment
    //some test cases wont need any data treatment but this layer is there in case they do

    private $_kernel;    

    public function __construct(HttpKernelInterface $kernel)
    {
        $this->kernel = $kernel;
    }

    public function setData($data)
    {
        foreach ($data as &$record) {
            $record['executable'] = $this->kernel->getRootDir() . '/app/' . $record['executable'];
        }
        $this->data = $data;
    }
}

LoadPurchaseTestData.php

<?php
#Tests/Fixtures/Purchase/LoadPurchaseTestData.php

namespace CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Purchase;

use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Entity\Purchase;
use CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures\LoadTestData;

//The second layer of abstraction tailors the fixture on the ORM level

abstract class LoadPurchaseTestData extends LoadTestData
{

    public function load($manager)
    {
        $result = array();
        foreach ($this->data as $record) {
            $testPurchase = new Job;
            $testPurchase->setCreateDate(new \DateTime);
            foreach ($record as $key => $val) {
                $testPurchase->{'set'.ucwords($key)}($val);
            }
            $manager->persist($testPurchase);
            array_push($result, $testPurchase);
            $manager->flush();
            unset($testPurchase);
        }
        return $result;
    }
}

LoadTestData.php

<?php
#Tests/Fixtures/LoadTestData.php

namespace CodeMeme\CommerceBundle\Tests\Fixtures;

use Doctrine\Common\DataFixtures\FixtureInterface;

use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernelInterface;


//two layers of abstraction, the first layer simply abstracts all fixtures

abstract class LoadTestData implements FixtureInterface
{   
    protected $data = array();
    
    public function setData($data)
    {
        $this->data = $data;
    }
    
    public function getData()
    {
        return $this->data;
    }
}