Customizing default view and edit forms for content type in Plone
Plone as CMS provides a lot of magic auto features out of the box. But If you want to change default edit and few forms and you are new to Plone - It could be tricky!
I spent a lot of time search for information how to change default edit and view forms for new content type. All pages which I found were too general, deprecated, not enough detailed etc. So I started digging on my own.
Finally, it is easy (If you know how ;). You have to use portal_skins mechanism, which means that you have to create skins directory in your packages and register it in configure.zcml:
<cmf:registerDirectory directory="skins" name="idoru_skins" recursive="True"/>
And copy to new directory below files (during copying replace base word in name with yourcontenttypename):
Products/Archetypes/skins/archetypes/base_view.pt
Products/Archetypes/skins/archetypes/base_view.pt.metadata
Products/Archetypes/skins/archetypes/base_edit.cpt
Products/Archetypes/skins/archetypes/base_edit.cpt.metadata
for example if you content type is name Place, files should have names:
place_view.pt
place_edit.cpt
and so on..
Last step, set your new templates as default ones, in profiles/default/types/ContentType.xml:
<property name="default_view">place_view</property>
<property name="view_methods">
<element value="base_view" />
</property>
<alias from="(Default)" to="(dynamic view)" />
<alias from="edit" to="place_edit" />
Now reinstall your product using portal_quickinstaller from ZMI.
