Import site manifest if available
The site manifest is an experimental feature in Antora (currently provided by a custom site generator). It exports all the known pages and aliases and their corresponding components and versions to a JSON file when generating a site (i.e., site-manifest.json). This manifest can then be imported into the content catalog at the beginning of the pipeline for the purpose of verifying references or making links to the published site. This is a perfect use case for the xref validator. By importing the manifest from the published site, the local site can be built in part and yet still be able to have all its xrefs validated.
If the primary-site-url
or primary-site-manifest-url
attribute is set in the playbook, the xref validator should read and import the data from that manifest into the content catalog. The pipeline should then proceed as it does today. Any xrefs that resolve outside the local site can then be validated against the published site.
As the format of this manifest may change in the future, the xref validator should assume its parsing version 3 of the schema.