The PowerBuilder naming convention for user event IDs is similar to the convention Windows uses to name messages. All PowerBuilder event IDs begin with pbm_.
Several Windows messages and notifications map to PowerBuilder event IDs.
For Windows messages that begin with wm_, the PowerBuilder event ID typically has the same name with pbm_ substituted for wm_. For messages from controls, the PowerBuilder event ID typically has the same name but begins with pbm_ and has the Windows prefix for the control added to the message name. For example:
wm_keydown maps to pbm_keydown
bm_getcheck (a button control message) maps to pbm_bmgetcheck
bn_clicked (a button control notification message) maps to pbm_bnclicked
To see a list of event IDs to which you can map a user-defined event, select Insert>Event and display the Event ID drop-down list in the Prototype window that displays.
Windows messages that are not mapped to a PowerBuilder event ID map to the pbm_other event ID. The PowerBuilder Message object is populated with information about system events that are not mapped to PowerBuilder event IDs. For more information about the Message object, see Objects and Controls or Application Techniques.
For more information about Windows messages and notifications, see the information about Windows controls and Windows management in the section on user interface design and development in the Microsoft MSDN Library.
PowerBuilder has its own events, each of which has an event ID. For example, the PowerBuilder event DragDrop has the event ID pbm_dragdrop. The event name and event ID of the predefined PowerBuilder events are protected; they cannot be modified. The event IDs for predefined events are shown in the Event List view:
![Shown is the Event List tab page of the Event List view. It displays a long list of predefined events such as activate ( ) returns long [ p b m _ activate ].](ue01.gif)
The list of event IDs that displays in the Event ID drop-down list in the Prototype window includes custom event IDs. Custom user events can be mapped from Windows wm_user message numbers to pbm_customxx event IDs.
Obsolete technique
This technique is not recommended and is considered
to be obsolete. The ability to use this technique has
been retained for backward compatibility. If you do not want to
map a user event to a named pbm_ code,
use an unmapped user event as described in “Unmapped user events”.
These event IDs were intended for use with DataWindow controls, windows, and user objects other than standard visual user objects, which behave like the built-in controls they inherit from. They were not intended for use with standard controls.
Defining custom user events for standard controls can cause unexpected behavior because all standard controls respond to standard events in the range 0 to 1023. Most controls also define their own range of custom events beyond 1023, corresponding to wm_user messages, and some controls have custom events that overlap with the PowerBuilder custom events. The pbm_custom01 event ID maps to wm_user+0, pbm_custom02 maps to wm_user+1, and so on, through pbm_custom75, which maps to wm_user+74.
