How to have a condition with the outer join

Question

Hi, I'd like to know if, inside a report, there's a way to create a condition which include in some way an outer join.
So, I have 2 custom folders:
Tickets with 2 fields: Ticket_id, Inventory_item_id, category_id and iptv_sumptom
Hierarchy with 4 fields: Symptom, Inv_item_id, Category_id and Group
These 2 folders are joined in this way
Tickets.inventory_item_id = Hierarchy.inv_item_id (+) AND Tickets.category_id = Hierarchy.category_id (+) AND Tickets.iptv_sumptom = Hierarchy.Symptom (+)
Now, from the report I have a parameter based on the field Group to restrict dataset of the tickets.
...but when I choose a group and I run the report, the conditions inside the plsql query generated is like this
WHERE (Tickets.inventory_item_id = Hierarchy.inv_item_id (+) AND Tickets.category_id = Hierarchy.category_id (+) AND Tickets.iptv_sumptom = Hierarchy.Symptom (+)) AND Hierarchy.Group = 'A'
where the last condition is WITHOUT outer join !
I need to have also the outer join on the Hierarchy.Group: AND Hierarchy.Group (+) = 'A', but from the Administrator I don't want to add another join with (+) for the Group. From Plus I didn't find any way to write (+).....
Anybody knows another method or workaround to have also a filter (the condition Hierarchy.Group = 'A') with an outer join ?
Thanks in advance
Alex

Answer 1

Hi,
A workaround can be either use new objects or modify the existing ones to avoid the outer join.
In order to do that you can add a dummy record to each custom folder and then join by it.
For example if you will add to the
Tickets will be:
select Ticket_id, Inventory_item_id, category_id, iptv_sumptom
from......
union all
select -1,-1,-1,'Some value' from dual
And hierarchy will be:
select Symptom, Inv_item_id, Category_id ,Group
from......
union all
select 'Some value',-1,-1,'Some value' from dual
Now you can create a full join between them without the need to outer join.
Hope it will help
Tamir