Oracle pipelined function cannot access remote table (ORA-12840) when used in a union - oracle

Question

I have created a pipelined function which returns a table. I use this function like a dynamic view in another function, in a with clause, to mark certain records. I then use the results from this query in an aggregate query, based on various criteria. What I want to do is union all these aggregations together (as they all use the same source data, but show aggregations at different heirarchical levels).
When I produce the data for individual levels, it works fine. However, when I try to combine them, I get an ORA-12840 error: cannot access a remote table after parallel/insert direct load txn.
(I should note that my function and queries are looking at tables on a remote server, via a DB link).
Any ideas what's going on here?
Here's an idea of the code:
function getMatches(criteria in varchar2) return myTableType pipelined;
...where this function basically executes some dynamic SQL, which references remote tables, as a reference cursor and spits out the results.
Then the factored queries go something like:
with marked as (
select id from table(getMatches('OK'))
),
fullStats as (
select mainTable.id,
avg(nvl2(marked.id, 1, 0)) isMarked,
sum(mainTable.val) total
from mainTable
left join marked
on marked.id = mainTable.id
group by mainTable.id
)
The reason for the first factor is speed -- if I inline it, in the join, the query goes really slowly -- but either way, it doesn't alter the status of whatever's causing the exception.
Then, say for a complete overview, I would do:
select sum(total) grandTotal
from fullStats
...or for an overview by isMarked:
select sum(total) grandTotal
from fullStats
where isMarked = 1
These work fine individually (my pseudocode maybe wrong or overly simplistic, but you get the idea), but as soon as I union all them together, I get the ORA-12840 error :(
EDIT By request, here is an obfuscated version of my function:
function getMatches(
search in varchar2)
return idTable pipelined
as
idRegex varchar2(20) := '(05|10|20|32)\d{3}';
searchSQL varchar2(32767);
type rc is ref cursor;
cCluster rc;
rCluster idTrinity;
BAD_CLUSTER exception;
begin
if regexp_like(search, '^L\d{3}$') then
searchSQL := 'select distinct null id1, id2_link id2, id3_link id3 from anotherSchema.linkTable#my.remote.link where id2 = ''' || search || '''';
elsif regexp_like(search, '^' || idRegex || '(,' || idRegex || || ')*$') then
searchSQL := 'select distinct null id1, id2, id3 from anotherSchema.idTable#my.remote.link where id2 in (' || regexp_replace(search, '(\d{5})', '''\1''') || ')';
else
raise BAD_CLUSTER;
end if;
open cCluster for searchSQL;
loop
fetch cCluster into rCluster;
exit when cCluster%NOTFOUND;
pipe row(rCluster);
end loop;
close cCluster;
return;
exception
when BAD_CLUSTER then
raise_application_error(-20000, 'Invalid Cluster Search');
return;
when others then
raise_application_error(-20999, 'API' || sqlcode || chr(10) || sqlerrm);
return;
end getMatches;
It's very simple, designed for an API with limited access to the database, in terms of sophistication (hence passing a comma delimited string as a possible valid argument): If you supply a grouping code, it returns linked IDs (it's a composite, 3-field key); however, if you supply a custom list of codes, it just returns those instead.
I'm on Oracle 10gR2; not sure which version exactly, but I can look it up when I'm back in the office :P

Answer 1

To be honest no idea where the issue came from but the simplest way to solve it - create a temporary table and populate it by values from your pipelined function and use the table inside WITH clause. Surely the temp table should be created but I'm pretty sure you get serious performance shift because dynamic sampling isn't applied to pipelined functions without tricks.
p.s. the issue could be fixed by with marked as ( select /*+ INLINE / id from table(getMatches('OK'))) but surely it isn't the stuff you're looking for so my suggestion is confirmed WITH does something like 'insert /+ APPEND*/' inside it'.