Detect infinite recursion in Entity.to_xml

Summary

Addresses https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/customers/f-fit/management/-/issues/96 / https://gitlab.com/linkahead/linkahead-pylib/-/issues/73
When calling to_xml on an Entity that refers to itself, to_xml now detects the infinite recursion and stops after the first level of repeated information.

Focus

• What is the likelihood that a version refers to itself (predecessor / successor)? Do we need to add the same functionality to Version.to_xml?
• Does this change anything for Entities that could already successfully call to_xml before? Are there cases where this might break the communication with the server?

Test Environment

Manual Testing

Check List for the Author

• All automated tests pass
• Reference related issues
• Up-to-date CHANGELOG.md (or not necessary)
• Up-to-date JSON schema (or not necessary)
• Appropriate user and developer documentation (or not necessary)
• Annotations in code (Gitlab comments)

Check List for the Reviewer

• I understand the intent of this MR
• All automated tests pass
• Up-to-date CHANGELOG.md (or not necessary)
• Appropriate user and developer documentation (or not necessary)
• The test environment setup works and the intended behavior is reproducible in the test environment
• In-code documentation and comments are up-to-date.
• Check: Are there specifications? Are they satisfied?

src/linkahead/common/models.py

@@ -1232,7 +1232,7 @@ class Entity:
         xml: Optional[etree._Element] = None,
         add_properties: INHERITANCE = "ALL",
         local_serialization: bool = False,
-        visited_entities: Optional[Union[list, None]] = None
+        visited_entities: Optional[list] = None
     ) -> etree._Element:
         """Generate an xml representation of this entity. If the parameter xml
         is given, all attributes, parents, properties, and messages of this
@@ -1240,15 +1240,25 @@ class Entity:
 
         Raise an error if xml is not a lxml.etree.Element
 
-        @param xml: an xml element to which all attributes, parents,
-            properties, and messages
-            are to be added.
-        @param visited_entities: recursion check, should never be set manually
-
-        FIXME: Add documentation for the add_properties parameter.
-        FIXME: Add documentation for the local_serialization parameter.
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        xml : etree._Element, optional
+            an xml element to which all attributes, parents,
+            properties, and messages are to be added. Default is None.
+        visited_entities : list, optional
+            list of enties that are being printed for recursion check,
+            should never be set manually. Default is None.
+        add_properties : INHERITANCE, optional
+            FIXME: Add documentation for the add_properties
+            parameter. Default is "ALL".
+        local_serialization : bool, optional
+            FIXME: Add documentation for the local_serialization
+            parameter. Default is False.
 
-        @return: xml representation of this entity.
+        Returns
+        -------
+        xml : etree._Element
+            xml representation of this entity.
         """
 
         if xml is None:
@@ -1260,7 +1270,7 @@ class Entity:
         if visited_entities is None:
             visited_entities = []
         if self in visited_entities:
-            xml.text = "..."
+            xml.text = xml2str(etree.Comment("Recursive reference"))
             return xml
         visited_entities.append(self)
 
@@ -1282,8 +1292,10 @@ class Entity:
             xml.set("description", str(self.description))
 
         if self.version is not None:
-            # Does version.to_xml need visited_entities support?
-            # It does have some recursion with predecessors / successors.
+            # If this ever causes problems, we might add
+            # visited_entities support here since it does have some
+            # recursion with predecessors / successors. But should be
+            # fine for now, since it is always set by the server.
             xml.append(self.version.to_xml())
 
         if self.value is not None: