##THEMES
CakePHP applications such as Zuluru generate their output through the
use of "views". Each page in the system has a primary view, with a name
similar to the page. For example, the view for /people/edit is located
at /cake/zuluru/views/people/edit.ctp. The page /leagues is a shortform
for /leagues/index, with a view at /cake/zuluru/views/leagues/index.ctp.
Many views also make use of elements, which are like mini-views that
are needed in various places. The content for emails is also generated
by elements. Elements are all in /cake/zuluru/views/elements and folders
below there.
CakePHP provides a way for you to replace any of these views, without
actually editing them. This is important for when you install a Zuluru
update; it will keep you from losing your customizations. To use this,
you simply create a new folder under /cake/zuluru/views/themed with the
name of your theme. For example, if your league is called "XYZ", you
might create /cake/zuluru/views/themed/xyz. Edit install.php with the
name of your theme:
$config['theme'] = 'xyz';
Now, copy and edit any view that you want to replace into your new xyz
folder. For example, to replace the membership waiver text, you would
copy /cake/zuluru/views/elements/people/waiver/membership.ctp into
/cake/zuluru/views/themed/xyz/elements/people/waiver/membership.ctp and
edit the resulting file. View files are PHP code, so you should have at
least a little bit of PHP knowledge if you are making complex changes.
Other common views to edit include the page header (the empty default is
found in /cake/zuluru/views/elements/layout/header.ctp) or the main
layout itself (/cake/zuluru/views/layouts/default.ctp). The layout is
built to be fairly customizable without needing to resort to theming;
for example you can add additional CSS files to include with an entry in
install.php.