Not sure if this helps at all (or if I can explain it!), but I am using a combination of SQL and the Columns Settings to display multiple images in a column if certain conditions are met.
Let me first explain what I wanted to achieve:
I wanted a list of people, in this case people related to local theatre, and listed against each I wanted a 'Details' section that showed a series of images indicating if they were a director, choreographer, if they would travel etc etc. People could belong to any/all/none of these groups.
So, my database table looked something like this:
Name, address, email, website, director, choreographer, will travel
MyName, MyAddress, MyEmail, Myweb, Y, N, Y
Name2, Address2, Email2, web2, N, Y, N
Each detail part has an associated image (IE director.png, choreographer.png, travel.png)
and I also have a completely blank image (noimage.png)
So I used SQL to make the relevant detail columns either one of the proper images, or the blank image using CASE:
SELECT Name, email, website, '' AS details,
CASE WHEN director = 'Y'
THEN 'director.png'
ELSE 'noimage.png'
END AS 'director',
CASE WHEN choreographer = 'Y'
THEN 'Choreographer.png'
ELSE 'noimage.png'
END AS 'choreographer'
CASE WHEN director = 'Y'
THEN 'travel.png'
ELSE 'noimage.png'
END AS 'travel'
FROM Mytable
Next is setting up the column settings.
I set up rules for the director/choreographer/travel columns to be hidden, and the usual rules for website and email and then set up the details column as follows:
IN FORMAT
<img src="images/{$columns:director}" /> <img src="images/{$columns:choreographer}" /> <img src="images/{$columns:travel}" />
You can see the results of my testing here:
www.mtnz.co.nz/demo/calendar
which might make it a bit clearer
