# Performance with many look-up tables **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 9, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808 "2006-03-09T00:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/soderic)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808/1 "2006-03-09T00:27:11Z")
Hi, I have an app - a first cut ROR - so it’s a bit of a mess. I’m now trying to clean it up. The app relies on a heap of look-up tables that are, by and large, static. I’m wondering where and how to initialise these collections once - so that I don’t have to keep hitting the database every time I start a new action. Can I initialise the collections at the start of a session - say in the application controller - and have them persist for the whole session? Cheers, Eric. ---
**Author:** ![soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/soderic)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808/2 "2006-03-09T04:32:10Z")
Eric S. wrote: > Hi, > I have an app - a first cut ROR - so it’s a bit of a mess. I’m now > trying to clean it up. The app relies on a heap of look-up tables that > are, by and large, static. I’m wondering where and how to initialise > these collections once - so that I don’t have to keep hitting the > database every time I start a new action. > > Can I initialise the collections at the start of a session - say in the > application controller - and have them persist for the whole session? If the lookup tables are application-wide (ie, they don’t rely on userA being logged in with a session) you can stored them in a class variable on your controller. During the dispatch.fcgi process existance they will exist. For each new dispatch.fcgi process that starts up, it will require to load the lookup table information. This is probably your optimal solution. You don’t want to store them in an instance variable on the controller though because for each new request you will be getting new instances of your controllers. If you have alot of data in your lookup tables and you don’t want to have to keep the same data around for every dispatch.fcgi process running you can you could create a UNIXSocket server where you house the data, and have your controller’s communicate to that via UNIXSocket Although this may be overkill. =) For cross-platform compatibility you could use a TCP Server, and connect via a TCPSocket, but that up to you! Zach ---
**Author:** ![soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/soderic)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808/3 "2006-03-09T07:15:29Z")
zdennis wrote: > If you have alot of data in your lookup tables and you don’t want to > have to keep the same data around for every dispatch.fcgi process > running you can you could create a UNIXSocket server where you house the > data, and have your controller’s communicate to that via UNIXSocket > Although this may be overkill. =) For cross-platform compatibility you > could use a TCP Server, and connect via a TCPSocket, but that up to you! Or, as someone on the list pointed out to me a while back, you can use DRb[1] to make the static data available to all your processes. b [1][http://www.chadfowler.com/ruby/drb.html](http://www.chadfowler.com/ruby/drb.html) ---
**Author:** ![soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/soderic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808/4 "2006-03-10T07:13:08Z")
Thanks Guys for the responses - I kinda assumed this would be a trivial question (and probably is) but I obviously have a lot to think through here. I’m temptd by the Drb solution, but I wonder if this has maintenance implications down the track. If I go with the @@class\_variables do I have a load once per session outcome? I’m a little new at this web programming gig, so forgive my ignorance. CHeers, Eric. ---
**Author:** ![soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@soderic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/soderic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/performance-with-many-look-up-tables/78808/5 "2006-03-10T09:29:04Z")
You could also have a look at the enumerations plugin [http://www.somethinglearned.com/articles/2005/10/25/announcement-new-rails-plugin](http://www.somethinglearned.com/articles/2005/10/25/announcement-new-rails-plugin) Eric S. wrote: > Ben M. wrote: > > > > > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Mike G. email : removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Technical Director fax : +353 68 470 01 XL CRS mobile: +353 87 677 2055 Lisselton phone : +353 68 470 10 Listowel Co. Kerry MSM : removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Ireland Y!M : removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid