A plug-in architecture for connecting to new data sources on mobile devices

A key use for mobile devices is to search and view online information while on the go. As a result, many mobile applications serve as front ends for online databases. While there are many thousands of data sources that provide web service APIs giving access to their databases, creating mobile applications to use those sources requires significant mobile programming knowledge and a significant amount of time. We introduce Spinel, a plug-in architecture for Android, and a set of web-based configuration tools that together enable users to connect mobile applications to new data sources without programming. Spinel also provides APIs that make it easy for developers to create new applications that use those data sources. We provide three demonstration Android applications that use such data: Listpad for entering personal lists, Listviewer for viewing results of data queries, and Mapviewer for displaying query results on a map. An informal usability study showed that users could successfully attach new data sources to those applications.