[[Property:title|Common message hooks]]
[[Property:weight|4]]
[[Property:uuid|356b5211-f710-6509-3609-8d717ff425f7]]
Each WEL library component implements a set of routines for processing the most common messages that a component receives. For example, looking at [[ref:libraries/wel/reference/wel_frame_window_chart|WEL_FRAME_WINDOW]] , you will see that there are many features which begin `on_`. Each of these features enable the user to know when a specific event has occurred, and to perform the appropriate processing as a result of this event. Most of the time, you will only be interested in a small subset of these, necessary to your program. For example, below is the code for on_paint:
<code>
    on_paint (paint_dc: WEL_PAINT_DC; invalid_rect: WEL_RECT)
            --Draw a centered text
        do
        end 
</code>


An on_paint message corresponds to the Wm_paint message generated by Windows whenever it needs to re-paint a window, and if you look at the feature, you can see that the arguments are a [[ref:libraries/wel/reference/wel_paint_dc_chart|WEL_PAINT_DC]]  and a[[ref:libraries/wel/reference/wel_rect_chart| WEL_RECT]] . which are relevant to this message. By redefining this feature (and others as required), your code will be able to respond appropriately to windows events. 
{{note|See [[Tutorial Step 2|step2]]  in the [[WEL Tutorial|tutorial]]  for a simple demonstration involving the re-definition of <eiffel>on_left_button_down</eiffel>. }}


For different messages received by a control, the arguments will differ (sometimes there are none), but those arguments will always be relevant to the message. For example, on_menu_command from [[ref:libraries/wel/reference/wel_composite_window_chart|WEL_COMPOSITE_WINDOW]]  has an <eiffel>INTEGER</eiffel> as an argument, the value of which is a unique menu identifier. <br/>

{{note|Not all windows events have a corresponding "<code>on_</code>" message hook defined in WEL. If you wish to process a Windows message that does not correspond to one of the available features, you will need to redefine <code>process_message</code>. 
}}