Use Fabrik for 'Contact Us...Refer-A-Friend...AND Link Exchange?' Efficient?

[terp]

This could just be the dumbest question I will post, but I am struggling to find alternatives to the Joomla core for a contact us engine, refer-a-friend, and a link exchange form.

I am not sure how all this works, but would I be adding a lot of overhead using Fabrik to achieve all of this? I would had to have a bunch of js and the like load for each page if not needed...trying to stay as lean and mean as possible, but given I have no programming skills whatsoever anymore (I was a mean Commodore 64 and Apple IIE BASIC programmer with some assembly), I do need to load up some extensions to accomplish all of this.

So is it recommended to use Fabrik for all of this, or are there some alternatives that most people use for each of these? I am definitely using Fabrik for my main forms, insofar as people submit some forms and then have the ability to query the inserted data/filter/etc and have a gridview/table displayed...which Fabrik does brilliantly.

It's been a month since I last posted and I still have a dozen questions or so, so once I get the site roughed out, (Arnold voice) "I'll be back!"

 

[rob]

theres always a playoff between having something lean and or flexible/easy to set up (i.e. built solely for its purpose orusing fabrik )
Once your site has loaded the fabrik js files once they are subsequently loaded from the browser cache, so even having lots of fabrik forms your user will still only download the js files once

 

[terp]

Perfect, Rob; thanks! That's what I was wondering...if each page would have to be compiled and the library loaded, or if loaded once and all additional forms run with minimal overhead.

I think I may have found a link exchange extension that will populate the link list with their respective information (upon moderator approval), so might accept the additional overhead to save work on that one, but will use Fabrik for the Contact Us and refer-a-friend field, then...haven't found any 'lean and mean' substitutes for these two bells and whistles.

I'm getting funky styling the main forms and table displays on my site, though...with my new favorite extension. You guys rock.