java - How to handle multiple parent types with JPA? -

i've inherited system has several tables of form this:

create table notes (     id int primary key,     note text,     parent_id int,     parent_type varchar ); 

basically, idea have several other types, "tickets" , "widgets", , if want add note ticket 123, you'd do:

insert notes (note, parent_id, parent_type)     values ('blah blah', 123, 'ticket'); 

is there sensible way have jpa create @onetomany relationships from, say, ticket note schema?

or need split notes table out separate ticket_notes, widgets_notes, etc tables?

would possible create separate ticketnotes, widgetnotes, etc entities in java using @discriminatorcolumn, perhaps?

it seems taking advantage of discriminators , inheritance gets me want.

for example:

@entity class ticket {     @id     private integer id;      // ...      @onetomany(mappedby="ticket", fetch=fetchtype.lazy)     private list<ticketnotes> notes; }   @entity @inheritence @discriminatorcolumn(name="parent_type") public abstract class note {     @id     private integer id;      // ... }  @entity @discriminatorvalue("ticket") public class ticketnote extends note {     @manytoone     @joincolumn(name="parent_id")     private ticket ticket; } 

helpful reference: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/java_persistence/inheritance