yii模块布局自定义

Question

In yii,I create a module called "admin" and I want to set the module to use the layouts I customized other than the defalult.so I seach some posts and it worked!
this is the post I read:

http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php/topic/24767-module-layout/

after i configured my app as the post,my app worked very well.but now I have some quetions:

1. the layoutPath
   the post said configure
   $this->layoutPath = Yii::getPathOfAlias('administration.views.layouts');
   the layoutPah variable confuse me very much,it seems this var not be defined in any class.so why it can be called by $this?
2. /layouts/main
   what is the difference between /layouts/main and //layouts/main when use //layouts/main it will not worked,the app still call the default main layout not mine?
3. overwriting
   the post also said the public $layout='//layouts/column1'; in controller overwriting the value set in the init() method for the module controller 。 is this tru?

Answer 1

1. The layoutPath
   The LayoutPath is defined in CWebApplication see details in the wiki So you can se it by using: Yii::app()->layoutPath= Yii::getPathOfAlias('administration.views.layouts');

2. Answered by PeterM

3. overwriting See the description of the CController layout attribute:

   The name of the layout to be applied to this controller's views. Defaults to null, meaning the application layout is used. If it is false, no layout will be applied. The module layout will be used if the controller belongs to a module and this layout property is null.

So you need to set it to null and the module layout will be used. Note: In any action of your controller you can set the layout to null $this->layout=null; so the layout will be null only in this action and not in the others!