# Defaults, on-site-text, other static data in rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 14, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/defaults-on-site-text-other-static-data-in-rails/175463 "2009-09-14T11:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![paerez](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/5fc32e/32.png) [@paerez](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paerez)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/defaults-on-site-text-other-static-data-in-rails/175463/1 "2009-09-14T11:00:44Z")
Rails theory question: What is the best way to store “static” values? I.e., the default preferences for new users, or strings found throughout a site (all text displayed to the end user is in a DB so that languages are easy to add). Currently this stuff is in the DB, default preferences being a “special” user (id: -1), and site text is in a big ole’ db table of its own. This seems like it might be a bad solution and it definitely leads to 2 problems: First: Its slow. Every time any page loads all the text being pulled out of a db is way too slow, as I’m making the app I’m currently working on mostly to learn my way around rails, and its only in use by ~20 people this is no problem, but it seems not scalable. Second: I do not know the “right way” to bring this data to a new place when the server changes (which it does not too infrequently since its internal). I have a giant migration file full of data to add to these tables, but there’s gotta be a better way right? Theory: It seems like the right solution to the first problem here might just be to make rails pull this “static” information out of the DB and into an object or a yaml file when it starts, is that correct? Is that possible? Is there a way easy and way railsy way to do it? The second problem also seems like it has an easy solution, there must be a simple way to migrate and rebuild the data that is not user-specific when hopping moving a rails app, what is the correct way to do that? I.e. all the text displayed to the end user, I currently just move that whole table as sql, but that seems awfully non-rails.