Hey GeoServer developers,
around 18 months ago I started a project to make a workbench for geospatial data based on eclipse/OSGi, geotools, openlayers, parts of udig called polymap3 (http://polymap.org/polymap3). The idea was/is to have both: the sophisticated web UI of the eclipse workbench AND an integrated server for OGC services. Something like udig, on the server, in the browser, with integrated geoserver.
One year ago I began to work on the integration of geoserver into the OSGi/equinox environment of eclipse. Because of the license problems (geoserver is GPL, polymap3 is LGPL) I switched to deegree. Which was not a good idea. So I asked Chris Holmes about the license issue and he proposed a FLOSS exception to the geoserver developers: http://osgeo-org.1803224.n2.nabble.com/FLOSS-Exception-for-GeoServer-td6130818.html
Now the work on running geoserver inside the OSGi environment of eclipse is mostly done. The users of polymap3 can provide their projects and layers via WMS/WFS using geoserver very smoothly 
Just one click in the project settings is needed. So, I would like the thank developers for their work on geoserver and geotools. This is real cool software, thanks! Also I would like to ask about the FLOSS license exception. Is there any progress with it?
Regarding geoserver code: the integration layer of polymap3 does not change geoserver code. All work is done via ClassLoader, geoserver loader, special MapProducers etc. See: http://polymap.org/polymap3/browser/plugins#org.polymap.core.services.geoserver/src/org/polymap/core/services/geoserver/spring.
Kind regards,
Falko
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Falko Bräutigam
http://polymap.org/polymap3