Allow different jQuery UI themes

Quick solution is to rename a 'base' folder to 'base_' and your custom theme folder to 'base'. There is no way to choose a theme through the interface. It is hardcoded in jquery_update.module, line 176.

I attempted the simple instructions provided by #1 but cannot change the theme. I, too, am looking for some standard style documentation 'for drupal' that even I can follow.

I don't know if this will help anyone as I don't think I'm doing this accurately but it works in my case. I am using jquery theme to style tabs in my right pane in panels. Before I installed jquery update module i was simply styling jquery.ui.theme.css at MYSITE/misc/ui/ .... You can see the image below. Here is how I updated the colors in my pane using jquery_update module and grabbing the "START style" from http://www.jqueryui.com/themeroller :

Obvious Note: jquery_update module goes into: MYSITE/modules/

INSTRUCTIONS on where to place themeroller stylesheet:

I downloaded new theme from http://www.jqueryui.com/themeroller (click Gallery tab) and download "Start" version: 1.8.21

Unzip and open development-bundle, open themes, copy 'start' folder.

paste 'start' folder into MYSITE/modules/jquery_update/replace/ui/themes/

now you have 'base' and 'start'

rename 'base' to 'base_'
rename 'start' to 'base'

so now you have 2 folders, "base_" and "base"

next go into 'base_' and copy 'minified'

Paste 'minified' folder inside 'base' folder

Staying inside 'base' folder, you'll see the stylesheet: jquery.ui.theme.css

copy this stylesheet and open up 'minified' folder inside 'base' folder

delete: jquery.ui.theme.min.css

paste: jquery.ui.theme.css

rename: jquery.ui.theme.css to jquery.ui.theme.min.css

what if the UI package I download doesn't have a 'development' folder?
the pacakage is here: http://medialoot.com/item/jquery-ui-theme-retro/
I tried several ways but doesn't work.

The way to do this is using hook_css_alter().
Example of this you can find in the jquery_update module.

function mytheme_css_alter(&$css) {
  $names = array(
    'ui.core', 'ui.theme', 'ui.accordion', 'ui.autocomplete', 'ui.button', 'ui.datepicker',
    'ui.dialog', 'ui.progressbar', 'ui.resizable', 'ui.selectable',
    'ui.slider', 'ui.tabs',
  );
 $csspath = drupal_get_path('theme', 'mytheme') . '/css/my_ui/';
 foreach ($names as $file) {
    $css["misc/ui/jquery.$file.css"]['data'] = $csspath . 'jquery.' . $file . '.css';
  }
}

Not particularly recent, but I found this useful http://blog.samat.org/2011/08/22/Changing-Drupal-7s-built-in-jQuery-UI-theme

This worked for me. Thank you!

Calefilm's solution worked for me. Thank you!

#5 solution works well, thanks Gints :)

Just added a tiny condition before replacing the CSS path, to avoid to set a path on an unused file :

function mytheme_css_alter(&$css) {
  $names = array(
    'ui.core', 'ui.theme', 'ui.accordion', 'ui.autocomplete', 'ui.button', 'ui.datepicker',
    'ui.dialog', 'ui.progressbar', 'ui.resizable', 'ui.selectable',
    'ui.slider', 'ui.tabs',
  );
 $csspath = drupal_get_path('theme', 'mytheme') . '/css/my_ui/';
 foreach ($names as $file) {
    if (isset($css["misc/ui/jquery.$file.css"])) {
      $css["misc/ui/jquery.$file.css"]['data'] = $csspath . 'jquery.' . $file . '.css';
    }
  }
}

I think this might be something we should tackle, or at the very least provide some helpful APIs that can be used in themes.

Actually, this is the correct parent as we won't be able to do anything until we're able to query against a CDN API.

.

Whoops, wrong issue.

See #3312045: Plan for jQuery Update 7.x-4.0 release.