# Fixed Data Sets

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fixed-data-sets/139136>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 31, 2008, 7:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fixed-data-sets/139136 "2008-05-31T07:41:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mjgp2)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2008, 7:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fixed-data-sets/139136/1 "2008-05-31T07:41:17Z")

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Hello,

I apologize in advance if this has been brought up previously, I can’t  
seem to find anything on it.

I was wondering whether I should be using migrations or something else  
for a fixed set of data that would be changed over time.

Here’s an example:

I’m about to set a model for languages that I originally preset (i.e.  
English, French, etc.) but I imagine that I would be adding on to this  
list after deploying. How do I ensure that I would be able to do this  
without any potential problems in the future.

Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mjgp2)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fixed-data-sets/139136/2 "2008-05-31T12:36:07Z")

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Instead of migration you could use fixtures. There is a plugin for  
seeding data named seed-fu,  
[http://intridea.com/2008/4/20/seed-fu-simple-seed-data-for-rails](http://intridea.com/2008/4/20/seed-fu-simple-seed-data-for-rails)  
, but I have never used it on one of my project.

good luck.  
mike

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@mjgp2](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mjgp2)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fixed-data-sets/139136/3 "2008-05-31T15:58:49Z")

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Matthew

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Matthew P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> I was wondering whether I should be using migrations or something else  
> for a fixed set of data that would be changed over time.

It is common to use migrations for this. Although that’s not really  
what  
they’re intended for, there isn’t a better alternative.

Brandon

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