# Adding default sets of topics, categories and users to a new Discourse

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-default-sets-of-topics-categories-and-users-to-a-new-discourse/42733>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [18 Aprile 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-default-sets-of-topics-categories-and-users-to-a-new-discourse/42733 "2016-04-18T16:47:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [18 Aprile 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-default-sets-of-topics-categories-and-users-to-a-new-discourse/42733/1 "2016-04-18T16:47:39Z")

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I have another university professor interested in using Discourse as a tool to run online classes. I would like to have a means to create an initial Discourse database with a set of sample categories and topics. For example,

- each course will have a set of categories/subcategories with appropriate permissions;
- there need to be additional topics in the Staff category about how to organize things
- Badges for submitting assignments and getting instructor approval
- I want to tweak the language in some of the default staff posts for people who don’t know what system administration is

I think that perhaps the easiest/best way to do this is to set up a fresh install, set stuff up like I want it, and back that up. Those who want to use my system would do a fresh install and restore my database. Does that sound right? Is there some other way? Might I want to do this as a template instead and use `db/fixtures/999_topics.rb` as a model?

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