You should never use $_GET or $_POST in Symfony (since it will make your code virtually untestable), but instead always use the Request object to fetch parameters (cfr. http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/http_foundation/introduction.html#accessing-request-data). For convenience Symfony can pass the Request as an argument in your controller : http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/controller.html#the-request-as-a-controller-argument.