Droip’s Content Manager supports scalable, relationship-driven architecture using Reference and Multi-Reference fields. These fields allow you to create relational data models, making content reusable, consistent, and dynamic across your website.

What Is a Reference?

A Reference field creates a one-to-one relationship between two content collections.

Think of it as a “foreign key” where one item points to another, rather than storing duplicated data.

What Is a Multi-Reference?

A Multi-Reference field forms a one-to-many relationship, where one item can link to multiple items in another collection.

This enables advanced relational setups like tags, multi-instructors, etc.

Reference Field 

A Reference Field lets you connect a single item from one collection to another. It’s perfect for one-to-one relationships — like assigning a Department to a Course, or a Contributor to a Project.

Why Use It?

• Reuse data instead of typing it again and again.
  
• Keep your content consistent across the site.
  
• Update once, and it changes everywhere it’s used!
  

Example: Instead of typing the department’s name for every course manually, you can connect each course to a department from the Departments collection.

How to Add a Reference Field

Let’s say you already have a Courses collection, and you want to reference a Department from another collection called Departments.

• Go to the collection where you want to add the reference (e.g., Courses).
• Click + Custom Fields, then choose Reference.

• Set the Target Collection: Pick the target collection you want to reference (e.g., Departments)
• Name the Field: Give the field a name (e.g., Department)

• Hit Save to apply the changes.
  

Add Data to the Field

When you’re adding or editing a Course in your Courses collection:

• You’ll now see a dropdown for the reference field (e.g., Department)
• Choose one of the items from the Departments collection — that’s it!

Displaying Reference Field on Your Website

Once you’ve connected data, you can display it on your page.

On a List Page (e.g., all Courses)

1. Add a Collection Element to the page.
   
2. Set the Source to Courses

3. Inside the Collection Element, add design elements (e.g., text).
   
4. For each element, click the Dynamic Content icon and set:

• Type: Reference
  
• Name: Department
  
• Value: What you want to display — like Post Title, etc.

On a Template Page (e.g., single Course page)

On a template page (e.g., dynamic page for each Course), the context of the current item is already known — so you don’t need a Collection Element for Reference Fields.

1. Drag a text/image or any design element anywhere on the page.
   
2. Click the Dynamic Content icon and set:

• Type: Reference
  
• Name: Department
  
• Value: Choose what to show — like Name, Description,etc

Multi-Reference Field 

A Multi-Reference Field lets you link multiple items from another collection. This is ideal for one-to-many relationships — like assigning multiple Tags to a Course, or multiple Awards to a Project.

Why Use It?

• Connects multiple items to a single entry.
• Easily manage grouped content (like tags, features, etc.)
• Keep related content dynamic and consistent
• Save time by reusing data across different items

Example: If you want to assign multiple tags to a course, instead of typing them all in manually, connect them from a Tags collection.

How to Add a Multi-Reference Field

Let’s say you want to add multiple Tags to your a Course.

• Go to the collection where you want to add the multi-reference (e.g., Courses).
• Click + Custom Fields, then choose Multi-Reference.

• Choose the Target Collection: Pick the target collection you want to link. (e.g., Tags)
• Name the Field: Give the field a name. (e.g., Tags)

• Click Save to finish.

Add Data to the Field

When editing a Course:

• You can add multiple items from the Tags collection.

Displaying Multi-Reference Data on Your Website

Since you’re referencing multiple items, this part is a little different from single references. You’ll need a collection element to display your multi-reference items. 

On a List Page (e.g., all Courses)

1. Add a Collection Element and set the Source as Courses
   
2. Inside this element, add another Collection Element. This nested one will display the multi-referenced items.
   
3. Set the nested Collection Element:

• Type: Multi-Reference
• Name: Tags (or whatever your referenced collection is called)

4. Inside this nested collection element, add a text, image, or any design element. Click the Dynamic Content icon and set:

• Type: Post
• Value: The field to display (e.g., Post Title)

On a Template Page (e.g., a single Course page)

1. Drag a Collection Element onto the page and set it as:

• Type: Multi-Reference
• Name: Tags (or whatever your referenced collection is called)

2. Inside it, add elements to show each Tag. 
3. Use the Dynamic Content icon and set:

• Type: Post
• Value: The field you want to show (e.g., Tag Name)

Updating Reference Content

Any changes you make in a referenced collection automatically reflect wherever that reference is used:

Example: Change a department’s info in Departments→ it updates across all courses referencing them.

This is especially powerful when managing large portfolios, product specs, or vendor info, etc. 

Best Practices

✅ DO:

• Reference instead of duplicate — especially for categories, tags, sponsors, clients, etc.
• Name your fields clearly (e.g., Primary Author, Related Tags)
• Populate referenced collections first to avoid null dropdowns
• Use Multi-Reference when multiple associations are guaranteed or expected
  

🚫 AVOID:

• Over-nesting references (e.g., Contributor → Company → Country) unless necessary, it may complicate display
• Using Multi-Reference when a single reference is enough.