MetaData can now reflect() all tables in the database en-masse thanks to table_names().

table_names changed to accept an explicit connection
ThreadLocalMetaData constructor now takes no arguments. If case_sensitive is needed in a multi-bind context, move it to Table or subclass TLMD to force it.
Banished **kwargs from MetaData
Lots of class doc and docstring improvements around MetaData and TLMD.
Some engine->bind internal naming updates + reorg in schema.
MySQL table_names now return Unicode. (Also, a unicode reflect() unit test is needed.)

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/lib/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py b/lib/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py
index 5e6c74c91..642eeac62 100644
--- a/lib/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py
+++ b/lib/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py
@@ -1028,8 +1028,21 @@ class Engine(Connectable):
 
         return Connection(self, close_with_result=close_with_result, **kwargs)
     
-    def table_names(self, schema=None):
-        conn = self.contextual_connect()
+    def table_names(self, schema=None, connection=None):
+        """Return a list of all table names available in the database.
+
+        schema:
+          Optional, retrieve names from a non-default schema.
+
+        connection:
+          Optional, use a specified connection.  Default is the
+          ``contextual_connect`` for this ``Engine``.
+        """
+
+        if connection is None:
+            conn = self.contextual_connect()
+        else:
+            conn = connection
         if not schema:
             try:
                 schema =  self.dialect.get_default_schema_name(conn)
@@ -1038,7 +1051,8 @@ class Engine(Connectable):
         try:
             return self.dialect.table_names(conn, schema)
         finally:
-            conn.close()
+            if connection is None:
+                conn.close()
 
     def reflecttable(self, table, connection=None, include_columns=None):
         """Given a Table object, reflects its columns and properties from the database."""