KSQL December Release: Streaming SQL for Apache Kafka | Confluent

Introduced support for Avro data format in ksqlDB, integrating with Confluent Schema Registry for automatic schema inference and management. Enabled real-time conversion between Avro, JSON, and delimited data formats. Enhanced join capabilities to work across different data formats. Added initial metrics and observability features with DESCRIBE EXTENDED and EXPLAIN statements. Improved ksqlDB server startup performance and resource utilization.