reading i18n messages from database

[Gregg Bolinger-8]

I ran across this blog article by Graeme and I'm wondering if this is still the preferred way or if there is a better way.  I'm using Grails 1.3.7.

http://graemerocher.blogspot.com/2010/04/reading-i18n-messages-from-database.html

I'm also wondering if there is a way where I could say if it isn't in the database, look for it in the properties file. 

Thanks.