Okay, so, first, complete newbie...which means that I would GREATLY
appreciate any help on this one.  Have been pulled, abruptly, in the middle
of trying to get something deployed, quickly...and, being a newbie, this is
difficult for me, but, based on everything that I've read, it actually is
fairly easy.

I've done this every which way but Sunday...this is my latest
attempt...take a look and let me know what steps I've missed...  Thank You!

I'm attempting to connect to first the prime database for this particular
web application, confirm or deny if a user's email address exists, and, if
it does exist, redirect the member over to one of our partner sites, while
also keeping a count on the 'users' table to ensure that the user doesn't
try to access the partner site more then 2x.

This is working just fine, no problems...  That's the good news...

If the application can't find the user on the application's prime database
site.  It now must connect to a secondary database and look for the user on
that database in the 'members' table.  If the email address does exist, it
increments the 'redirect_count' and then redirects the member over to one
of our partner sites.  If the member has reach the max allotted access to
the partner site, a message is flashed advising the user of such.

So, now for the code...note that the code provided, and the help needed, is
specific to connecting to, and validating (and updating) the members table.

This is the model file that I've created for the purpose of the connecting
to the secondary database, and validating  / updating the corresponding
members table.

*************************************************************************** *****************

class DealCore < ActiveRecord::Base

  conn2 = { :adapter => 'mysql',
    :encoding => 'utf8',
    :reconnect => 'true',
    :database => 'deals_qa',
    :username => 'xxxxxx',
    :password => 'xxxxxx',
    :host => 'xx.xx.xx.xx',
    :port => 'xxxx'
  }

  self.abstract_class = true

  establish_connection (conn2["deals_#{RAILS_ENV}"])

  class User < DealCore

    def clone_to_deals
      m = Users.find_by_email(@email)
      m.redirect_count += 1
      m.save
    end

    class << self
      def email_exists?(email)
        find_by_email(email)
      end

if @user = DealCore::User.email_exists?(@email)
                member = @user.clone_to_deals
                @Redirect_Flag = [0,1,2].include? member.redirect_count
                @Costco_Flag = true
              end

Little help...pretty please!

Thanks!

Tami