see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/reportgenerator.html

http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/

There are also a lot of ways to generate PDFs and web pages
if you decide to roll your own,

Richard

My background (and finances) are similar and I have summarised my
transition at <http://ide.profectus.com.au>.

If all you are seeking is a replacement for Crystal Reports ignore the
above and check out iReport <http://ireport.sourceforge.net/index.php>
which is a GUI front end for JasperReports
<http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/>.

Most Java database applications, including the above, work with any
JDBC compliant database. Even Microsoft provides a JDBC driver. I have
listed the results of my search for a database at
<http:/database.profectus.com.au>

I've never used Crystal Reports; in fact, I have never knowingly looked at
any output from Crystal Reports.

However, I have found some free ways to generate reports from Java. Perhaps
this will supplement the information that others have given in their replies
to your questions.

One of the techniques I use is to write HTML pages from Java programs. I've
got some examples if you need them but they're a bit more involved than you
probably want. There's nothing very automated about this technique but it
lets you write pretty much anything you'd ever want; you just have to keep
writing println statements until everything you want it written to the
report. This doesn't use anything but native Java facilities so it doesn't
cost anything but time.

The other technique I've started using lately is the iText classes, which
can be found for free at http://www.lowagie.com/iText/. You can use these
classes in Java programs to write files in any of these formats: PDF, RTF,
HTML and XML. Again, you need to compose the content of these reports but
it's not terribly difficult coding for the most part; you just have to take
some time to write the statements.

With both techniques I've mentioned, you can access JDBC to get database
data and use that data in your reports.

---
Rhino

Try Scribe. The Personal edition is free.

www.reportgenerator.org

Alex Molochnikov
Gestalt Corporation

It appears that Crystal Reports will also work with Java, so you may not
have to go through another learning curve for doing reports.
http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/xi/