Is it possible to build a JPA entity by extending a POJO?

Question

Lets say I have the following POJO:

public class MyThing {
 private int myNumber;
 private String myData;
//assume getter/setter methods
}

Answer 1

It is possible:

• you can map it with XML - make an orm.xml (conforming to the orm schema), and map the columns of your POJO, without even extending it. It will be JPA-enabled in one environment, and a POJO in the other one
• override just the getter methods and annotate them - (I'm not sure if this will work)

That said, I don't think it is necessary to do this. Just annotate your POJO, and add the compile-time dependency to your projects. Then each project will decide whether it will use them as JPA entities or not.