function ddl_showTables ($dbname)
    // obtain a list of tables within the specified database.
    {
        // connect to database
        $this->connect($dbname) or trigger_error($this, E_USER_ERROR);

        $array = array();

        $dbname = $GLOBALS['dbprefix'] .$dbname;

        // build the query string and run it
        $this->query = 'SHOW TABLES FROM "' .$dbname .'"';

        $result = mysqli_query($this->dbconnect, $this->query) or trigger_error($this, E_USER_ERROR);

        $count = mysqli_num_rows($result);

        // write query to log file, if option is turned on
        logSqlQuery ($dbname, null, $this->query, $count);

        // convert result set into a simple indexed array for each row
        while ($row = mysqli_fetch_row($result)) {
            $array[] = $row[0];
        } // while

        mysqli_free_result($result);

        return $array;

    } // ddl_showTables

    function _cm_getInitialDataMultiple ($fieldarray)
    // Perform custom processing prior to insertMultiple.
    // $fieldarray contains data from the initial $where clause.
    {
        // get list of existing table names
        if (!is_string(key($fieldarray))) {
            $fieldarray = $fieldarray[0];
        } // if

        $dbname   = $fieldarray['database_id'];
        $dbprefix = dict_findDBPrefix($dbname);

        $array = $this->_ddl_showTables($dbprefix.$dbname);

        // filter out those that already exist in DICT database
        $i = 0;
        foreach ($array as $tablename) {
            $tablename = strtolower($tablename);
                $count = $this->getCount("database_id='$dbname' AND table_id='$tablename'");
            if ($count == 0) {
                // insert details of new database
                $fieldarray[$i]['database_id'] = $dbname;
                $fieldarray[$i]['table_id']    = $tablename;
                $fieldarray[$i]['table_desc']  = ucwords(str_replace('_', ' ', $tablename));
                $i++;
            } // if
        } // foreach

        return $fieldarray;

    } // _cm_getInitialDataMultiple