We are in a conversation where one developer uses the term "Entity Bean" and one describes something relatively similar as a "Data Model".
Are these terms synonymous? Are there subtle differences the terms imply that should be considered?
The environment is PHP, with some ex-java experience relevant among the developers.
These are completely different.
An entity bean is a representation in memory of one item of data, usually from a database. The term is also used for the class that the entity bean belongs to.
A physical data model is a scheme for expressing a whole variety of different types of data in the tables of a database. A logical data model is a kind-of abstract version of this. But neither of these is anything like an entity bean.