Circular reference pick lists never complete loading

[grantfitzsimmons]

Describe the bug

Note

The underlying issue here is that the name field in preptype was assigned the pick list PrepType, which is defined as follows:

The relationship from preparation to preptype is via the preparation.prepType field, which was mapped to the PrepType picklist as well. This created an issue where the frontend was continuously trying to display the formatted preptype table, which itself was using the PrepType picklist.

In a copy of the uibcbb database, the prepType relationship from Preparation results in an infinitely loading request, causing the pick list to not show results (only "Loading...") and queries run with fields added via the prepType relationship to load indefinitely. From a user perspective, comparing the form definition and the PrepType picklist record against those in other functioning databases does not show any signs of why this issue is happening. Network requests show the appropriate results, but the frontend appears to be unable to render them.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Map the preptype.name field to PrepType
2. Go to any form that shows the prepType pick list
3. See that the pick list never loads
4. Build or use a query that returns fields in the preptype table via the prepType relationship field from preparation and verify that no results are displayed

Expected behavior
The frontend should handle this case or we need to forbid creating these circular field formats.

Crash Report

Arc, macOS, v7.11.2.1

Specify 7 System Information - 2025-10-09T20_56_23.472Z.txt

Reported By
Anna Díaz Lorca at University of the Balearic Islands in https://specifysoftware.bolddesk.com/agent/tickets/284

[specifysoftware]

This issue has been mentioned on Specify Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.specifysoftware.org/t/preptype-picklist-and-specifycloud-org-stats-traffic-issue/3456/2

[heryk]

FYI. This suggestion from Bronwyn fixed the issue for me: https://discourse.specifysoftware.org/t/preptype-picklist-and-specifycloud-org-stats-traffic-issue/3456/2?u=heryk