I am currently developing a CRM platform with Flex3 and BIRT. Very powerful reporting. All the functionality of Crystal Reports except its FREE. Supports JavaScripting and Java and I have it running on a JBoss server.
I currently have it set up to use iFrames inside Flex (http://www.deitte.com/archives/2006/08/finally_updated.htm), which is a little buggy, to actually display the report inside a panel IN my flex application. If ur not too worried about that, you can just use flex for all the selection criteria, and then do a URLRequest to your JBoss server running the BIRT application, which generates a report in a window that allows you to export to PDF,WORD,EXCEL,PostScript...etc, as well as export to RAW by selecting fields used in the report. It supports table of contents...all kinds of nifty stuff. There is a bit of a learning curve involved tho. Just a heads up. The BIRT Report development environment is an Eclipse plugin that features nice drag and drop, but for real reporting expect to have to write some javascript or java - whichever you are more comfortable with. I didn't really know much of either when I started building with it 4 weeks ago, and now I have a fully functional reporting system with 4 pretty cool reports developed already. Still learning. There is lots of power here. Also, the birt support forums are incredible. Post a question and one of their techs respond within a couple hours usually. Good documentation, and unlike the other reporting suites I evaluated when I was trying to figure out what to go with, you can actually buy books on BIRT. I bought both Addison Wesley's BIRT - A field guide to reporting, and Integrating and Extending BIRT. Good stuff, good luck! http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/ http://www.birt-exchange.org/#newest Amanda
