@Serializer(forClass = List::class)
class SingleToArraySerializer<T : Any>(private val dataSerializer: KSerializer<T>) : KSerializer<List<T>> {

    // note: the parser we use is the same instance as what we have set up in the shared network module, so
    // that if we need to modify it, we only modify it in one place
    private val parser = Network().parser

    @ImplicitReflectionSerializer
    override val descriptor = SerialDescriptor("com.salonbiz.SingleToArray") {
            dataSerializer
        }

    override fun serialize(encoder: Encoder, value: List<T>) {
        encoder.encode(ListSerializer(dataSerializer), value)
    }

    override fun deserialize(decoder: Decoder): List<T> {
        return when (val jsonElement = JsonElementSerializer.deserialize(decoder)) {
            is JsonArray -> jsonElement.content.map { parser.parse(dataSerializer, it.toString()) }
            else -> listOf(parser.parse(dataSerializer, jsonElement.toString()))
        }
    }
}