Multiple Inserts

Hello,

I am trying to optimize my Rails code for database inserts. I often have to insert/update several thousand records after web crawls. Once I have all the data to insert/update, what are some good ways to optimize this? I've looked into doing multiple inserts using object- level transactions. However, the Rails API states that this functionality is deprecated (http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ ActiveRecord/Transactions/ClassMethods.html#M000681). What is the preferred method? Thanks!