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##### 11.7.2.5 Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus

Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy—you just declare it with the `gnus-declare-backend` functions. This will enter the back end into the `gnus-valid-select-methods` variable.

`gnus-declare-backend` takes two parameters—the back end name and an arbitrary number of abilities.

Here's an example:

         (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)

The above line would then go in the `nnchoke.el` file.

The abilities can be:

`mail`
  This is a mailish back end—followups should (probably) go via mail.
`post`
  This is a newsish back end—followups should (probably) go via news.
`post-mail`
  This back end supports both mail and news.
`none`
  This is neither a post nor mail back end—it's something completely different.
`respool`
  It supports respooling—or rather, it is able to modify its source articles and groups.
`address`
  The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is true for almost all back ends.
`prompt-address`
  The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like `B` in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like `nntp`, but not `nnmbox`, for instance.