[receiver/kafka] Evaluate support for topic and exclude topic as an array

[paulojmdias]

Component(s)

receiver/kafka

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, the topic and exclude_topic configuration fields are defined as single strings. However, the internal implementation already passes these as arrays for future-proofing. It would be useful to evaluate supporting multiple topics and exclude patterns directly in the configuration to allow the same receiver to handle multiple topics.

Describe the solution you'd like

Evaluate transforming the configuration fields to support arrays:

topic → topics (array of strings)
exclude_topic → exclude_topics (array of strings)

This would allow users to configure multiple topic patterns and exclusions in a single receiver instance, for example:

kafka:
  traces:
    topics:
      - "^traces-prod-.*"
      - "^traces-staging-.*"
    exclude_topics:
      - "^traces-prod-internal-.*"
      - "^traces-staging-test-.*"

This could be done without a breaking change, and support both options for some time.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

Related PR: #44118 (added exclude_topic support) Discussion reference: #44118 (comment)

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[github-actions]

Pinging code owners:

• receiver/kafka: @pavolloffay @MovieStoreGuy @axw @paulojmdias

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[paulojmdias]

/label -needs-triage

[khushijain21]

Can I be assigned to this issue?

[axw]

@khushijain21 all yours!