# Globalize vs. GetText for static text

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-vs-gettext-for-static-text/98889>\
**Category:** Rails I18n\
**Created:** [July 18, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-vs-gettext-for-static-text/98889 "2006-07-18T21:10:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chris\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Chris\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Chris_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/globalize-vs-gettext-for-static-text/98889/1 "2006-07-18T21:10:13Z")

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I have been evaluating both Globalize and GetText for an application  
where I will be primarily translating static strings (i.e. I’m not  
translating values in the model).

I initially preferred Globalize because it seemed to be a more rails-ish  
way to do things, but I’m somewhat confused about how I would actually  
use Globalize for my task.

As I understand, Globalize stores all of it’s translated strings in a  
database. These strings (unless you manually make a translation call)  
aren’t created until the first time the application accesses that  
particular string. My question is how do people manage these strings in  
the build/deployment environment? There are three parts to this 1) how  
to migrate these strings to a new database 2) how to ensure that if the  
base translation changes that the dependent translations are flagged for  
update 3) how to get a complete list of strings which need to be  
translated.

I admit that I’m approaching this problem in a GetText sort of way so  
I’m hoping that I’m just missing something fundamental in Globalize  
which will address these issues. I can imagine it wouldn’t be difficult  
for me to add some of this functionality, but I didn’t want to reinvent  
the wheel.

Any guidance would be appreciated,

cva