diff --git a/frontend/src/Metamaps/Import.js b/frontend/src/Metamaps/Import.js
index d4051ddb..b499d462 100644
--- a/frontend/src/Metamaps/Import.js
+++ b/frontend/src/Metamaps/Import.js
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ const Import = {
     Import.handle(results)
   },
 
+  handleXML: function(text) {
+    const results = XMLParser.parseSchema(text)
+    Import.handle(results)
+  },
+
   handle: function(results) {
     var self = Import
     var topics = results.topics.map(topic => self.normalizeKeys(topic))
diff --git a/frontend/src/Metamaps/XMLParser.js b/frontend/src/Metamaps/XMLParser.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3897e3f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/Metamaps/XMLParser.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import parseXML from 'xml-parser'
+
+const XMLParser = {
+  parseSchema = (text) => {
+    // see format of data at https://www.npmjs.com/package/xml-parser
+    const data = parseXML(text)
+
+    // TODO algorithm to transform `data` to `returnValue`
+
+    // TODO this is the output format, but we still need to fill it in with real data
+    const returnValue = {
+      topics: [],
+      synapses: []
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+export default XMLParser
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index dfa67ded..813e389b 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@
     "riek": "1.0.7",
     "simplewebrtc": "2.2.2",
     "socket.io": "1.3.7",
-    "webpack": "2.2.1"
+    "webpack": "2.2.1",
+    "xml-parser": "^1.2.1"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "babel-eslint": "^7.1.1",