add option to use a custom html field generation method

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 ### Bug fixes
 - Fixed internal links in docstrings and tutorials. @stephprince [#1031](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1031)
 - Fixed issue with creating documentation links to classes in docval arguments. @rly [#1036](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1036)
+- Fixed recursion error in html representation generation in jupyter notebooks. @stephprince [#1038](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1038)
 
 ## HDMF 3.12.0 (January 16, 2024)
 

src/hdmf/container.py

@@ -626,7 +626,10 @@ def _generate_html_repr(self, fields, level=0, access_code="", is_field=False):
         if isinstance(fields, dict):
             for key, value in fields.items():
                 current_access_code = f"{access_code}.{key}" if is_field else f"{access_code}['{key}']"
-                html_repr += self._generate_field_html(key, value, level, current_access_code)
+                if hasattr(value, '_generate_field_html'):
+                    html_repr += value._generate_field_html(key, value, level, current_access_code)
+                else:
+                    html_repr += self._generate_field_html(key, value, level, current_access_code)
         elif isinstance(fields, list):
             for index, item in enumerate(fields):
                 access_code += f'[{index}]'