Java Swing : Alt-tab styled menu (context switching menu)

Question

Are there any current implementations or frameworks for Java Swing that include functionality for a context-switcher menu?

---

More detail:

In our application, we have several sub-parts of the application, and only one of them is displayed at once. Presently there are several ways to switch between them, including tool bar buttons and via the View menu. We would like to add another means, that is accessible via a keyboard shortcut. This would bring up a context-switch menu, similar in concept to those available in modern OS'es.

If you press Alt+Tab and release the Tab while still holding down Alt , you will get a little window in the middle of the screen, displaying the various applications that are running at the moment. In Ubuntu, you get a screenshot of each application, plus its window manager icon. In Windows you get the window manager icons, and so on.

Answer 1

I think this is possible. You could apply a transformation to a Graphics option that you pass to each JFrame and have it paint a small version of itself on it. Then take those images and place them on a GlassPane on top of your application. The highlighting of the selected window might be tricky, but I think it would work nicely.