EDIT

package eu.etaxonomy.cdm.vaadin.util;

import java.sql.SQLException;

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;

import org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationContextUtils;

import com.vaadin.data.util.sqlcontainer.connection.JDBCConnectionPool;

import com.vaadin.server.VaadinServlet;

import eu.etaxonomy.cdm.api.service.ITaxonService;

import eu.etaxonomy.cdm.vaadin.container.CdmSpringConnectionPool;

public class CdmSpringContextHelper {

    private final ApplicationContext context;

    private static CdmSpringContextHelper contextHelper;

    private CdmSpringContextHelper(ServletContext servletContext) {

        context = WebApplicationContextUtils.

                getRequiredWebApplicationContext(servletContext);

    }

    public static CdmSpringContextHelper newInstance() {

    	if(VaadinServlet.getCurrent() == null || VaadinServlet.getCurrent().getServletContext() == null) {

    		throw new RuntimeException("Vaadin Servlet or Vaadin Servlet Context not initialized");

    	}

    	if(contextHelper == null) {

    		ServletContext sc = VaadinServlet.getCurrent().getServletContext();

    		contextHelper = new CdmSpringContextHelper(sc);

    		return contextHelper;

    	} else {

    		return contextHelper;

    	}

    }

    public Object getBean(final String beanRef) {

        return context.getBean(beanRef);

    }

    public static JDBCConnectionPool getConnectionPool() throws SQLException {

        DataSource bean = (DataSource) newInstance().getBean("dataSource");

        JDBCConnectionPool connectionPool = new CdmSpringConnectionPool(bean.getConnection());

        return connectionPool;

    }

    public static ITaxonService getTaxonService() {

        return (ITaxonService)CdmSpringContextHelper.newInstance().getBean("taxonServiceImpl");

    }

}