Magento Dynamic Hooks

Usually, i divide Magento hooks into two category: block hooks and model hooks. Model hooks are used to add extra handling for business logic and block hooks for template rendering.

1. Block Hooks;

   final public function toHtml()
    {
        Mage::dispatchEvent('core_block_abstract_to_html_before', array('block' => $this));
        if (Mage::getStoreConfig('advanced/modules_disable_output/'.$this->getModuleName())) {
            return '';
        }
        $html = $this->_loadCache();
        if ($html === false) {
            $translate = Mage::getSingleton('core/translate');
            /* @var $translate Mage_Core_Model_Translate */
            if ($this->hasData('translate_inline')) {
                $translate->setTranslateInline($this->getData('translate_inline'));
            }

            $this->_beforeToHtml();
            $html = $this->_toHtml();
            $this->_saveCache($html);

            if ($this->hasData('translate_inline')) {
                $translate->setTranslateInline(true);
            }
        }
        $html = $this->_afterToHtml($html);

        /**
         * Check framing options
         */
        if ($this->_frameOpenTag) {
            $html = '<'.$this->_frameOpenTag.'>'.$html.'<'.$this->_frameCloseTag.'>';
        }

        /**
         * Use single transport object instance for all blocks
         */
        if (self::$_transportObject === null) {
            self::$_transportObject = new Varien_Object;
        }
        self::$_transportObject->setHtml($html);
        Mage::dispatchEvent('core_block_abstract_to_html_after', array('block' => $this, 'transport' => self::$_transportObject));
        $html = self::$_transportObject->getHtml();

        return $html;
    }

There are two outstanding statements: 

Mage::dispatchEvent('core_block_abstract_to_html_before', array('block' => $this)); 

Mage::dispatchEvent('core_block_abstract_to_html_after', array('block' => $this, 'transport' => self::$_transportObject));

When you hooks core_block_abstract_to_html_before, it will change the block as you want.

2. Model Hooks;

There are lots of model hooks in the Magento. Please have a check the default hook list below:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/5_-_modules_and_development/reference/events

3. Event Mechanism;

public function dispatchEvent($eventName, $args)
    {
        foreach ($this->_events as $area=>$events) {
            if (!isset($events[$eventName])) {
                $eventConfig = $this->getConfig()->getEventConfig($area, $eventName);
                if (!$eventConfig) {
                    $this->_events[$area][$eventName] = false;
                    continue;
                }
                $observers = array();
                foreach ($eventConfig->observers->children() as $obsName=>$obsConfig) {
                    $observers[$obsName] = array(
                        'type'  => (string)$obsConfig->type,
                        'model' => $obsConfig->class ? (string)$obsConfig->class : $obsConfig->getClassName(),
                        'method'=> (string)$obsConfig->method,
                        'args'  => (array)$obsConfig->args,
                    );
                }
                $events[$eventName]['observers'] = $observers;
                $this->_events[$area][$eventName]['observers'] = $observers;
            }
            if (false===$events[$eventName]) {
                continue;
            } else {
                $event = new Varien_Event($args);
                $event->setName($eventName);
                $observer = new Varien_Event_Observer();
            }

            foreach ($events[$eventName]['observers'] as $obsName=>$obs) {
                $observer->setData(array('event'=>$event));
                Varien_Profiler::start('OBSERVER: '.$obsName);
                switch ($obs['type']) {
                    case 'disabled':
                        break;
                    case 'object': case 'model':
                        $method = $obs['method'];
                        $observer->addData($args);
                        $object = Mage::getModel($obs['model']);
                        $this->_callObserverMethod($object, $method, $observer);
                        break;
                    default:
                        $method = $obs['method'];
                        $observer->addData($args);
                        $object = Mage::getSingleton($obs['model']);
                        $this->_callObserverMethod($object, $method, $observer);
                        break;
                }
                Varien_Profiler::stop('OBSERVER: '.$obsName);
            }
        }
        return $this;
    }