I didn't replace the one in web2py, I just use the jQueryUI one by including the necessary CSS and JS files and placing the files in static/js and static/css after downloading a custom build from jQueryUI
In the view where it is needed I add these lines before the extend 'layout.html' line {{response.files.append(URL('static','css/cupertino/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.css'))}} {{response.files.append(URL('static','js/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.min.js'))}}