Don't crash on non-traditional external field formats

[melton-jason]

Fixes #7144

As alluded to by @alesan99 in #7144 (comment), the primary underlying cause of #7144 was a change in #6710 for handling the case where a Field Formatter for CollectionObject -> catalogNumber did not exist.

This was mainly caused in the following line where a non-null assertion operator (!) was used to tell the TypeScript compiler that the value couldn't be null (even when it could be null).

This would largely be the case when the CollectionObject catalogNumber format was defined as an external format and was not the known CatalogNumberNumeric format

specify7/specifyweb/frontend/js_src/lib/components/FieldFormatters/index.ts

Lines 31 to 37 in f5179b4

	if (typeof formatter.external === 'string') {
	if (
	parseJavaClassName(formatter.external) ===
	'CatalogNumberUIFieldFormatter'
	)
	resolvedFormatter = new CatalogNumberNumeric();
	else return undefined;

In the default field formatters, this would be the case for the CatalogNumberString format

specify7/config/backstop/uiformatters.xml

Lines 53 to 55 in f5179b4

	<format system="true" name="CatalogNumberString" class="edu.ku.brc.specify.datamodel.CollectionObject" fieldname="catalogNumber" default="false">
	<external>edu.ku.brc.specify.ui.CatalogNumberStringUIFieldFormatter</external>
	</format>

This PR handles the case where a CollectionObject -> catalogNumber is not defined, as well as does some refactoring/maintenance work to extract the BulkCarry logic to its own components.

Checklist

• Self-review the PR after opening it to make sure the changes look good and
  self-explanatory (or properly documented)
• Add relevant issue to release milestone
• Add pr to documentation list
• Add automated tests
• Add a reverse migration if a migration is present in the PR

Testing instructions

Test series entry (instructions take from #6710 (comment))

• Go to Data Entry for Collection Object
• Click on Form Meta and enable Carry Forward and Bulk Carry Forward Range. Also enable "create record set"
• Fill out some fields on the form and save.
• The Carry Forward range input should appear
• Make sure you can only enter a valid start catalog number (It should use the catalog num of the CO you just saved)
• Make sure you can only enter a valid end catalog number
• Make sure you can't enter invalid ranges (where the start is bigger than the end for example)
• Make sure you can't enter a range with 500 or more records.
• Click Carry Forward and make sure all the COs in the range you specified were created
• Try to Carry Forward over catalog numbers belonging to COs that already exist
• Click Carry Forward and see a dialog with a list of all existing catalog numbers.
• Click on Form Meta and disable the "create record set on bulk carry" preference
• Try Bulk Carry Forward and make sure no record set is created. But make sure all newly created records appear on the form page thing.
• Try creating a CO with a Collection Object Type with that uses a different formatter for the catalog number. Bulk Carry should still work, except if the formatter does not support autoincrementing (the button will be disabled).

---

• Set the CatalogNumberFormatName on the Collection or (default CollectionObjectType) to be a CollectionObject -> catalogNumber Field Format which includes an external tag with any value besides edu.ku.brc.specify.ui.CatalogNumberUIFieldFormatter.
  • You can use the default CatalogNumberString format:

specify7/config/backstop/uiformatters.xml

Lines 53 to 55 in f5179b4

	<format system="true" name="CatalogNumberString" class="edu.ku.brc.specify.datamodel.CollectionObject" fieldname="catalogNumber" default="false">
	<external>edu.ku.brc.specify.ui.CatalogNumberStringUIFieldFormatter</external>
	</format>

• Ensure that the CollectionObject form can be opened

• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward range preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu

• Ensure the series-entry, Bulk Carry Forward range box does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward range feature

• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward count preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu

• Ensure the Bulk Carry Forward count number input does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward count feature

• Please also do some general testing regarding Carry Forward and the BulkCarryForward configuration options!

  • Particularly, can cloning COGs be tested? As well as CollectionObjects in COGs. Ensure there are no regressions!

[emenslin]

• The Carry Forward range input should appear
• Make sure you can only enter a valid start catalog number (It should use the catalog num of the CO you just saved)
• Make sure you can only enter a valid end catalog number
• Make sure you can't enter invalid ranges (where the start is bigger than the end for example)
• Make sure you can't enter a range with 500 or more records.
• Click Carry Forward and make sure all the COs in the range you specified were created
• Click Carry Forward and see a dialog with a list of all existing catalog numbers.
• Try Bulk Carry Forward and make sure no record set is created. But make sure all newly created records appear on the form page thing.
• Try creating a CO with a Collection Object Type with that uses a different formatter for the catalog number. Bulk Carry should still work, except if the formatter does not support autoincrementing (the button will be disabled).

---

• Ensure that the CollectionObject form can be opened

• Ensure the series-entry, Bulk Carry Forward range box does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward range feature

• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward count preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu

• Ensure the Bulk Carry Forward count number input does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward count feature

• Please also do some general testing regarding Carry Forward and the BulkCarryForward configuration options!

  • Particularly, can cloning COGs be tested? As well as CollectionObjects in COGs. Ensure there are no regressions!

---

• When I first loaded up an instance both count and range were selected but when I deselected one it fixed itself so I am not sure what happened. Might not be a problem since I can't recreate it but I wanted to mention it here just in case.

• In main on COGs the checkboxes for showing clone and carry forward on the form are all there but checking them doesn't do anything whereas on this branch the checks are just not visible. Was this intentional? Also if it was, the checkbox for showing the 'Add' button needs to be visible as that one should be configurable, I think hiding the checkboxes for showing clone and carry forward makes sense since they don't work for COGs anyway.

Main:

issue branch:

[melton-jason]

• When I first loaded up an instance both count and range were selected but when I deselected one it fixed itself so I am not sure what happened. Might not be a problem since I can't recreate it but I wanted to mention it here just in case.

Hmmm, technically both count and range can be selected at the same time. You can always recreate this behavior by manually editing the User Preferences such that count and range are both enabled for the table.
In the case that both are enabled for a particular table and you are viewing an existing CollectionObject, Specify will prioritize showing the range input over the count input.

Not sure how this behavior was initially introduced on your instance.

• In main on COGs the checkboxes for showing clone and carry forward on the form are all there but checking them doesn't do anything whereas on this branch the checks are just not visible. Was this intentional? Also if it was, the checkbox for showing the 'Add' button needs to be visible as that one should be configurable, I think hiding the checkboxes for showing clone and carry forward makes sense since they don't work for COGs anyway.

Main:

issue branch:

Hiding the clone and carry forward checkboxes in the FormMeta wasn't explicitly intentional, but if the behavior is more intuitive then I would be fine to keep it.

Some of the testing for COGs and cloning would be testing cloning records which aren't COGs but have related COGs: such as cloning CollectionObjects which have COGs and ensuring there is no regression in the behavior compared to main/v7.11.0.2

[alesan99]

• The Carry Forward range input should appear
• Make sure you can only enter a valid start catalog number (It should use the catalog num of the CO you just saved)
• Make sure you can only enter a valid end catalog number
• Make sure you can't enter invalid ranges (where the start is bigger than the end for example)
• Make sure you can't enter a range with 500 or more records.
• Click Carry Forward and make sure all the COs in the range you specified were created
• Click Carry Forward and see a dialog with a list of all existing catalog numbers.
• Try Bulk Carry Forward and make sure no record set is created. But make sure all newly created records appear on the form page thing.
• Try creating a CO with a Collection Object Type with that uses a different formatter for the catalog number. Bulk Carry should still work, except if the formatter does not support autoincrementing (the button will be disabled).
• Ensure that the CollectionObject form can be opened
• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward range preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu
• Ensure the series-entry, Bulk Carry Forward range box does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward range feature
• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward count preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu
• Ensure the Bulk Carry Forward count number input does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward count feature
• Please also do some general testing regarding Carry Forward and the BulkCarryForward configuration options!

---

Using CatalogNumberString as the collection default no longer crashes, as well as using it as the COT formatter.

Tried cloning COs within a COG, looks like its working correctly except isPrimary misassigned, but that is not a regression 👍

The Add button also appears on COG forms now as expected.

And the issue I was having with existing catalog numbers causing a crash has been fixed 👍👍

[emenslin]

• The Carry Forward range input should appear
• Make sure you can only enter a valid start catalog number (It should use the catalog num of the CO you just saved)
• Make sure you can only enter a valid end catalog number
• Make sure you can't enter invalid ranges (where the start is bigger than the end for example)
• Make sure you can't enter a range with 500 or more records.
• Click Carry Forward and make sure all the COs in the range you specified were created
• Click Carry Forward and see a dialog with a list of all existing catalog numbers.
• Try Bulk Carry Forward and make sure no record set is created. But make sure all newly created records appear on the form page thing.
• Try creating a CO with a Collection Object Type with that uses a different formatter for the catalog number. Bulk Carry should still work, except if the formatter does not support autoincrementing (the button will be disabled).
• Ensure that the CollectionObject form can be opened
• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward range preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu
• Ensure the series-entry, Bulk Carry Forward range box does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward range feature
• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward count preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu
• Ensure the Bulk Carry Forward count number input does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward count feature
• Please also do some general testing regarding Carry Forward and the BulkCarryForward configuration options!

---

Looks good, only thing I discovered is I can't bulk carry forward on a CO with a non default COT with a different catalog number format.

07-23_15.52.mp4

Specify 7 Crash Report - 2025-07-23T20_52_22.360Z.txt

Link to the db: https://ojsmnh20250717-issue-7144.test.specifysystems.org/specify/

[alesan99]

Looks good, only thing I discovered is I can't bulk carry forward on a CO with a non default COT with a different catalog number format.

@emenslin I managed to recreate it on your instance a couple times, then it looks like it fixed itself? Very strange.
To add, apparently a similar configuration (######### to YEAR-######) work on KUBirds and csi so I'm not sure what the issue is.
So it looks like there was some other underlying issue, but if its possible to recreate again I'd like to address it.

Update:
Seems to be caused by existing COs with invalid catalog numbers (blanks). These appear to automatically fallback to ######### as per the existing autonumber logic. Creating enough new valid COs fixes it.

[emenslin]

I believe I have discovered the problem. It seems to have to do with having no fields selected in the configuration for bulk carry forward. I'm not sure why this is because you cannot deselect 'type' in the config so there is probably some other field in there that is causing the problem but I am not sure which

07-24_10.11.mp4

Wrote up #7197

[alesan99]

I believe I have discovered the problem. It seems to have to do with having no fields selected in the configuration for bulk carry forward. I'm not sure why this is because you cannot deselect 'type' in the config so there is probably some other field in there that is causing the problem but I am not sure which

@emenslin It appears deselect all is deselecting required fields, even though they still appear checked.
I verified this by manually selecting everything, and still seeing the error. Clicking select all fixed it.

So the issue probably happens with 1. a non default formatter 2. Some invalid records (maybe) 3. the user click deselct all in the settings.

This is an existing issue that affects Bulk Carry Forward Count, though it should be written up.

[emenslin]

• The Carry Forward range input should appear

• Make sure you can only enter a valid start catalog number (It should use the catalog num of the CO you just saved)

• Make sure you can only enter a valid end catalog number

• Make sure you can't enter invalid ranges (where the start is bigger than the end for example)

• Make sure you can't enter a range with 500 or more records.

• Click Carry Forward and make sure all the COs in the range you specified were created

• Click Carry Forward and see a dialog with a list of all existing catalog numbers.

• Try Bulk Carry Forward and make sure no record set is created. But make sure all newly created records appear on the form page thing.

• Try creating a CO with a Collection Object Type with that uses a different formatter for the catalog number. Bulk Carry should still work, except if the formatter does not support autoincrementing (the button will be disabled).

• Ensure that the CollectionObject form can be opened

• Ensure the series-entry, Bulk Carry Forward range box does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward range feature

• Enable the Show Bulk Carry Forward count preference in the CollectionObject's Form Meta menu

• Ensure the Bulk Carry Forward count number input does not appear on the form and you can not use the BulkCarryForward count feature

• Please also do some general testing regarding Carry Forward and the BulkCarryForward configuration options!

  • Particularly, can cloning COGs be tested? As well as CollectionObjects in COGs. Ensure there are no regressions!

---

Looks good, I didn't run into any new issues.