From c989d9c483a4fc74147e17065779fd6103f4a084 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Night-Quiet <hjc19990430@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2025 19:06:09 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix: skip comment blocks in `DOCXToDocument` (#8764)

* fix bug #8759

* Apply suggestions from code review

* release note

---------

Co-authored-by: Stefano Fiorucci <stefanofiorucci@gmail.com>
---
 haystack/components/converters/docx.py                        | 3 +++
 .../notes/docx-skip-comment-blocks-d3a555d0324788c7.yaml      | 4 ++++
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 releasenotes/notes/docx-skip-comment-blocks-d3a555d0324788c7.yaml

diff --git a/haystack/components/converters/docx.py b/haystack/components/converters/docx.py
index b9d59bd56..8f9a58004 100644
--- a/haystack/components/converters/docx.py
+++ b/haystack/components/converters/docx.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ with LazyImport("Run 'pip install python-docx'") as docx_import:
     from docx.document import Document as DocxDocument
     from docx.table import Table
     from docx.text.paragraph import Paragraph
+    from lxml.etree import _Comment
 
 
 @dataclass
@@ -210,6 +211,8 @@ class DOCXToDocument:
         """
         elements = []
         for element in document.element.body:
+            if isinstance(element, _Comment):
+                continue
             if element.tag.endswith("p"):
                 paragraph = Paragraph(element, document)
                 if paragraph.contains_page_break:
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/docx-skip-comment-blocks-d3a555d0324788c7.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/docx-skip-comment-blocks-d3a555d0324788c7.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e213aa694
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/docx-skip-comment-blocks-d3a555d0324788c7.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    The DOCXToDocument component now skips comment blocks in DOCX files that previously caused errors.