Web 8.5 disable default field validation

Question

I have recently upgraded from 2013 to Web 8.5. We are now running into an issue with our external link field.

For our content, this field is sometimes a URL but can also be a token that our CD code resolves. However, now in 8.5 it looks like the external link field type is validated to make sure it is a valid URL.

Is there a way to turn that off? Or is my best option to change the field type and update any of the code that this effects? The only docs I can find all talk about UGC validators or custom validators.

Update: Adding error details.

XML validation error. Reason: The 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink:href' 
attribute is invalid - The value 'mailto:{{pa_region_email}}' is invalid 
according to its datatype 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema:anyURI' - The 
string 'mailto:{{pa_region_email}}' is

XML validation error. Reason: The 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink:href' 
attribute is invalid - The value 'mailto:{{pa_region_email}}' is invalid 
according to its datatype 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema:anyURI' - The 
string 'mailto:{{pa_region_email}}' is not a valid Uri value.

As you will see the token in this field is {{pa_region_email}} this is the same token we have always had. XML validation would have changed but we do also have a GUI extension (same one and code base as in 2013). Digging more into XSD or GUI config.

Answer 1

In Web 8.5 indeed the value mailto:{{pa_region_email}} is not accepted, since when using mailto, it seems to expect something in the form of mailto:[email protected].

However if you would just use {{pa_region_email}} and have that add the mailto: protocol itself, then you seem to pass the validation a bit easier.

It indeed seems that Web 8.5 introduced a fix to an issue which was there in 2013 which you had exploited so to speak (I can't find a mention of the specific fix, but it could have happened as a side effect of something like an upgrade of prerequisite etc.). That is assuming the error message is indeed correct and mailto:{{pa_region_email}} is invalid according to its datatype 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema:anyURI'. In case that might not be true, I would suggest that you report that as a defect at Customer Support.

Answer 2

I've done some tests with a java xml/xsd validator, and here it looks like the mailto:{{some_string}} is a valid anyURI.

This XML is valid using the XSD below.

 <?xml version="1.1"?>
 <AnyURI_Test>
   <AnyURI href="mailto:{{pa_region_email}}"></AnyURI>
 </AnyURI_Test>

XSD :

<?xml version="1.1"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="AnyURI_Test">
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="AnyURI">
       <xs:complexType>
        <xs:attribute name="href"
                      type="xs:anyURI"
                      use="optional" />
       </xs:complexType>
     </xs:element>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Off course, i'm not entirely sure if this corresponds to the xsd that SDL Web 8.5 uses. Also, maybe the java validation has a different implementation than the .NET one used in SDL Web. Might be good to check this with SDL support.