As you have already figured out, there should only be one single representation of a fact in the system (The DRY principle from the Pragmatic Programmers).

So the question is where the fact is stated. Some ideas:

You can get it from the database as per your #4. But how does it get into the database in the first place? If you nuke the db, how do you rebuild it? I imagine that somewhere there are SQL scripts for default data.

• If not, maybe there should be? Maybe those scripts could be used to determine the constants in the code?
• If not, maybe the code could be responsible for setting up the default data in the database? It wouldn't have to do this all the time, but the information for doing it at scheduled upgrades could live in the code

/J

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