Hi Kim,
Multi-ref fields have some real limitations, one of which you’ve already found, and @mikeyevin has pointed out.
Part of the problem here is that with a multiref field, there’s no way to get all of that data directly into your static directory page, even for scripts to process. I don’t think Finsweet’s tools have a way around that, because the data just isn’t exposed.
There are two good approaches;
One is to work with Webflow’s design limits. You have 33 employees on that page, just show the first 5 of each of their specialities. Then have a link to “see all” of their specialties, which takes them to that staff member’s bio page, where you can list all of them. There, a collection list can be bound directly to the specialties multi-ref field and it doesn’t have the 5-item limit of nested lists.
If you really want the list all of the specialties for each staff member on the directory page there are other ways, but more complex, and they involve some programming.
I use an “xref” approach for situations like this, where I’d have a 3rd table called “Staff-Specialities”, where each record has a single-ref to the Staff, and a single-ref to the Specialty. You can load this much more easily, and then use script to reorganize them so they all appear under the correct staff member.
However you have 33 staff, and probably more than 3 specialties per, so you’ll hit the 100 collection list limit quickly. That’s also resolvable, just, again, a bit more creative scripting.
I highly recommend that you work with @mikeyevin if he’s available. If he’s not, feel free to message me, my team has a special Webflow package for exactly this kind of work.
