Yes, You can store all those variables in a session variable. Sessions allow you to store variables between requests, and give you 'state'.
In your controllers, you can assign a session variable:
def index session[:my_first_setting] = nil end
def change_setting session[:my_first_setting] = params[:setting1] end
def search order = session[:my_first_setting] ? "updated_at DESC" : "updated_at ASC" @results = Items.find(:all, :order => order) end
You can store almost any data object in a session hash.