# Help with "Data Blender": Active Record or No?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-with-data-blender-active-record-or-no/111108>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 2, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-with-data-blender-active-record-or-no/111108 "2007-08-02T19:04:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Anders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Anders)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help-with-data-blender-active-record-or-no/111108/1 "2007-08-02T19:04:47Z")

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I’m about to start on my first Rails project, and I could use some  
advice. I’m going to build a “Data Blender” to replace a lot of  
frantic work that gets done here by hand using Microsoft Access.  
Using the Data Blender, you’ll be able to import our variety of 30,000  
to 200,000 record data files into mySQL, then slice off parts, two  
counts, export, etc… Initially it will make it easy to save and  
modify import and export formats (a lot of the data I get have  
relatively similar but not the same formats). Eventually, you’ll be  
able to build a simple data recipes – a very stripped down version of  
Yahoo pipes. For storing items such as import/export formats, I’ll  
use Active Record. But for data files I’m importing on-the-fly, is it  
worth it, or does it make more sense to do it all in SQL? Any advice  
would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,  
Anders