v9.1.0-beta.8

What's Changed

Critical Fixes ‼️

• fix(exec): preserve order when coalescing a sorted multi-partition plan by @wjones127 in #7868

New Features 🎉

• feat: accept TableProvider write inputs for merge_insert and insert by @wjones127 in #7368
• feat(index): write zone map seeds into data file footers during append by @westonpace in #7427
• feat: add batch blob range reads by @Xuanwo in #7864
• feat(format): read and write sparse structural pages by @Xuanwo in #7889
• feat(mem_wal): drive the WAL append on a flush-interval ticker by @hamersaw in #7894

Bug Fixes 🐛

• fix(commit): verify finalized external manifests by @BubbleCal in #7578
• fix(index): sort JSON-path values once after extraction, not the raw column by @wjones127 in #7835
• fix(index): return error instead of panicking when hierarchical k-means can't reach target_k by @wjones127 in #7869
• fix(mem_wal): harden shard open and fail reads on a poisoned writer by @hamersaw in #7872
• fix(mem_wal): read-your-writes via split index-apply and dual visibility cursors by @hamersaw in #7888

Full Changelog: v9.1.0-beta.7...v9.1.0-beta.8