Block Editor 3.0: restore internal dotCMS page search in the link popover

[rjvelazco]

Description

The legacy Block Editor's link popover lets authors search for internal dotCMS pages directly from the URL field — typing a few characters (e.g. /inde) surfaces a live, autocomplete-style list of matching pages with title, path, and thumbnail, so the author can pick a page instead of pasting a raw URL.

The new Block Editor (3.0) link popover does not have this capability — the URL field is a plain text input with no page search/autocomplete. This is a feature-parity gap. We need to bring the behavior back before the new editor reaches customers, so authors don't lose the ability to link to internal pages by search.

Legacy behavior (reference):

Aspect	Legacy link popover
URL field	Typing a partial path/term triggers a live page search
Results	Dropdown of matching dotCMS pages — title, path, thumbnail
Selection	Picking a result fills the link with the page's URL
Fallback	Author can still type/paste an arbitrary external URL

New behavior (current): URL field is a plain input only — no search, no suggestions, no way to look up an internal page by title/path.

Screenshot of the legacy popover's page-search dropdown attached to the originating request.

Acceptance Criteria

• The new Block Editor link popover URL field supports searching internal dotCMS pages by typing a partial title or path.
• Matching pages appear in an autocomplete/dropdown list showing at least the page title and path (thumbnail if feasible, matching legacy).
• Selecting a result populates the link href with the selected page's URL.
• Authors can still type or paste an arbitrary external URL (the search must not block manual entry).
• Behavior reaches parity with the legacy link popover's page-search experience.
• Works in both the create-link (text selected) and edit-link (existing link) flows.

Priority

Medium

Additional Context

• Part of the Block Editor 3.0 effort (epic Block Editor 3.0: standards, accessibility & feature parity #35262).
• Reuse the same backend page-search the legacy popover and the slash menu's contentlet drill-down already use, rather than introducing a new HTTP service (per the lib's data-access conventions).
• New link popover lives at libs/new-block-editor/src/lib/editor/components/link-popover/.

[github-actions]

PRs linked to this issue

• feat(Block Editor): Restore internal dotCMS Page search in the link popover by @rjvelazco

[KevinDavilaDotCMS]

Passed QA

Tested in main 94fb755

2026-06-08.07-45-35.mov