Extensibility of SharePoint 2010 search functionality

Question

My company is currently in the process of building a CMS on top of SharePoint 2010.

Part of the functionality of the CMS will require being able to have a searchbox that searches the contents of a specific list (both custom lists and external content list types) and returns the list items relevant to the search as the results.

My questions are:

1. Is it possible to build a search Webpart that only searches a specific list?
2. Is is possible to have an external content list sitting on top of a database table via BCS searchable through SharePoint Search Services?

Any constructive input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Frank

Answer 1

1. Searching a specific list can be implemented in several ways depending on the type of list you can use CAML to search for specific field info, you can create a search scope just searching the specific list or you can use a custom query that only retrieves info from that list
2. SharePoint Server 2010 Standard allows you to search external content types and each ECT can have a profile page which is the landing page of the search result.