diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchServlet.java b/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchServlet.java
index a6a471504f992dde352a331e605ce822da175eb6..2abcb9ba3c500e7c1d7a1a6b0613f4791612fe6f 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchServlet.java
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchServlet.java
@@ -23,11 +23,10 @@ public class SearchServlet extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
    private static final Logger         LOGGER   = Logger.getLogger("PSearch");
    private static final SearchSettings settings = SearchSettings.getInstance("search.properties");
 
-   final String RESPONSE_ENCODING = "utf-8";
-   final String DEFAULT_RESPONSEFORMAT = settings.defaults.responseFormat;
-   final String DEFAULT_SKY_SYSTEM     = settings.defaults.skySystem;
-   final String DEFAULT_SPEC_SYSTEM    = settings.defaults.specSystem;
-   final String DEFAULT_TIME_SYSTEM = "MJD_UTC"; // FIXME take from config file
+   final String RESPONSE_ENCODING   = "utf-8";
+   final String DEFAULT_SKY_SYSTEM  = "ICRS";
+   final String DEFAULT_SPEC_SYSTEM = "WAVE_Barycentric";
+   final String DEFAULT_TIME_SYSTEM = "MJD_UTC";
 
 
    public void init() throws ServletException
@@ -90,8 +89,6 @@ public class SearchServlet extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
 
          LOGGER.info("Found " + pubdidArr.length + " records");
 
-         final String RESPONSE_ENCODING = "UTF-8";
-
          /* if filters installed response will be wrapped */
 
          if(response instanceof FormatResponseWrapper)
@@ -146,7 +143,7 @@ public class SearchServlet extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
       catch(Exception ex)
       {
          LOGGER.warning("Exception: " + ex.getMessage());
-         // ex.printStackTrace();
+         ex.printStackTrace();
 
          response.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
          response.setContentType("text/plain");
diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchSettings.java b/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchSettings.java
index 9e764a024b6a0e0c729efc30a1610d91a4bfae0c..16a73c2660adc2d2f48df334c61b67153bdcaf77 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchSettings.java
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/java/webapi/SearchSettings.java
@@ -1,48 +1,11 @@
 
-import java.util.logging.Logger;
-
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.util.Properties;
-import java.io.PrintWriter;
 
 
 class SearchSettings
 {
-   //private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger("SearchSettings");
-
-   public static class DefaultParamValues
-   {
-      String responseFormat;
-      String skySystem;
-      String specSystem;
-      boolean showDuration;
-   }
-
-
-/*
-   public static class DBConn
-   {
-      private String uri;
-      private String schema;
-      private String user_name;
-      private String password;
-
-      public String uri() {return uri;}
-      public String schema() {return schema;}
-      public String userName() {return user_name;}
-      public String password() {return password;}
-
-      public String toString()
-      {
-         return uri + "  schema[" + schema +  "] " + user_name + " / " + password;
-      }
-   }
-*/
-    public DBConn     dbConn;
-    public DefaultParamValues defaults;
-
-   // will not start without config-file; no reasonable code-defaults can be invented
    public static SearchSettings getInstance(String settingsFileName)
    {
       try
@@ -54,10 +17,9 @@ class SearchSettings
             Properties properties = new Properties();
             properties.load(ins);
 
-            DBConn      dbConn      = loadDBConn(properties);
-            DefaultParamValues defaults = loadDefaults(properties);
+            DBConn dbConn = loadDBConn(properties);
 
-            return new SearchSettings(dbConn, defaults);
+            return new SearchSettings(dbConn);
          }
          else
          {
@@ -71,35 +33,26 @@ class SearchSettings
       }
    }
 
-
-
-
-   private SearchSettings(DBConn dbConn,  DefaultParamValues defaults)
-   {
-      this.dbConn      = dbConn;
-      this.defaults  = defaults;
-   }
-
-
    private static DBConn loadDBConn(Properties properties)
    {
       DBConn dbConn = new DBConn();
       dbConn.uri       = properties.getProperty("db_uri","jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vialactea").strip();
-      dbConn.schema    = properties.getProperty("db_schema","datasets").strip();
+      dbConn.schema    = properties.getProperty("db_schema","ivoa").strip();
       dbConn.user_name = properties.getProperty("db_user_name","").strip();
       dbConn.password  = properties.getProperty("db_password","").strip();
 
       return dbConn;
    }
 
-   private static DefaultParamValues loadDefaults(Properties properties)
+
+   // instance; separate classes allow grouping of settings
+   // DBConn - db_*
+
+   public DBConn dbConn;
+
+   private SearchSettings(DBConn dbConn)
    {
-      DefaultParamValues defaults = new DefaultParamValues();
-      defaults.responseFormat = properties.getProperty("default_response_format", "application/fits").strip();
-      defaults.skySystem      = properties.getProperty("default_sky_system", "ICRS").strip();
-      defaults.specSystem     = properties.getProperty("default_spec_system", "WAVE_Barycentric").strip();
-      defaults.showDuration   = "yes".equals(properties.getProperty("show_duration", "no").strip());
-      return defaults;
+      this.dbConn = dbConn;
    }
 
 }
diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/search.properties b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/search.properties
index eb3b59d791acaf9f28f0fd6d8be3966c23940eb8..6828d84522995a0fe3dfc71eda6184390c1ce2b6 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/search.properties
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/search.properties
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 # database with 'obscore' table
 # db_uri=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vialactea
-# db_schema=datasets
+# db_schema=ivoa
 db_user_name=
 db_password=