add option to use a custom html field generation method

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 # HDMF Changelog
 
+## HDMF 3.12.2 (February 9, 2024)
+
+### Bug fixes
+- Fixed recursion error in html representation generation in jupyter notebooks. @stephprince [#1038](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1038)
+
 ## HDMF 3.12.1 (February 5, 2024)
 
 ### Bug fixes

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}]'
@@ -639,7 +642,10 @@ def _generate_html_repr(self, fields, level=0, access_code="", is_field=False):
         return html_repr
 
     def _generate_field_html(self, key, value, level, access_code):
-        """Generates HTML for a single field."""
+        """Generates HTML for a single field.
+
+        This function can be overwritten by a child class to implement customized html representations.
+        """
 
         if isinstance(value, (int, float, str, bool)):
             return f'<div style="margin-left: {level * 20}px;" class="container-fields"><span class="field-key"' \