SharePoint 2010 has introduced a new type of List called the External List. The External List is used for displaying content that comes from Business Connectivity Services (BCS) Enterprise content types. Business Connectivity Services is the replacement in SharePoint 2010 for The Business Data Catalog (BDC) in SharePoint 2007.
- Workflows cannot be configured on External Lists.
- Information management policies are not supported on External Lists.
- No Version History.
- No Rest access through ListData.svc to External Lists.
- No List permission or Item Permissions
- No Datasheet View & Inline Editing.
- No Export to Excel
- No Ratings.
- No RSS feeds.
- No Lookups but you can’t also create columns
- No attachments.