Web content URL validator attempts to validate links to pages or documents that are inside comments

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 7.0.X, Master
• Fix Version/s: 7.0.0 DXP FP93, 7.0.10.14 DXP SP14, 7.0.X, 7.1.10 DXP FP18, 7.1.10.5 SP5, 7.1.X, Master
• Component/s: Staging > Export/Import, Web Content > Web Content Administration
• Labels:
  • 7.1-could
  • INACTIVE
  • QA-V
  • ee-ts
  • liferay-dxp-70-sp14
  • liferay-dxp-71-sp5
  • liferay-fixpack-de-93-7010
  • liferay-fixpack-dxp-18-7110
• Branch Version/s:
  7.1.x, 7.0.x
• Backported to Branch:
  Committed
• Story Points: 0.25
• Fix Priority: 3
• Git Pull Request: https://github.com/brianchandotcom/liferay-portal/pull/63610

Description
When validating URLs inside of text (such as in a web content article), the validator just grabs any URL it finds inside of an "href" tag and tries to validate it. The problem with this is that the href tag could be inside a comment and thus should not need to be validated.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start up Liferay and log in as the admin user
2. Navigate to Liferay > Content > Web Content > + (Add Button) > Basic Web Content.
3. Switch the "Content" field to Code view.
4. Paste the following HTML into the "Content" field.

   <p>This is a test <!--<a href="http://localhost:8080/web/guest/link-to-page-that-does-not-exist">Link</a>--></p>

5. Click on the Publish button

Expected Result: The web content article would be published successfully, since it does not contain any problematic links that any user can access when they view the article.
Actual Result: The article fails to publish with a " The content references a missing page." error.