I am facing a very aggressive as they say deadline on a project where I need to modify existing RedDot-based system(change some template things, pretty minor changes), and I have no prior experience with RedDot and hence no knowledge of it.
What would you recommend to buy/read to get going with it asap? Places to ask questions? Get help?
Thanks!
There is a unofficial Google Group and a couple of blogs written by RedDot developers (the best of which is the Unofficial RedDot CMS blog).
But, there is really very little freely available information on RedDot online, and there are no books – basically OpenText are your only source of information (particularly if you are a beginner). The help system in RedDot itself can sometimes be a useful starting point (at least where the text has been translated to English).
I too am in a similar situation and have spent the best part of a week scouring the web. As Triffid says, http://groups.google.com/group/RedDot-CMS-Users is one of the only places outside of OpenText to get help. On the plus side, when I have asked questions I have got decent replies and help in return.
I have recently implemented a large RedDot CMS and LiveServer project-- some personal reflections on hindsight:
Absolutely try to reach out directly to OpenText. Especially try to get in touch with their Partner Enablement Manager. He is incredibly useful and knowledgeable in these matters. Don't wait for support, either, as that team often takes a very long time to respond.
The google group is useful, the blog became more useful over time, but as we progressed through the project most of our questions exceeded most users' experiences. (I suspect this is because most of our questions dealt with LiveServer specifically.)
Give back. I'm hoping to sit down and document everything I can to support the community, since I couldn't find much myself. It's been about a 10 month project, so I'll have plenty to cover. Unfortunately that doesn't help you NOW.