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Getting started

@bedrock-engineer/bro-xml-parser is a TypeScript parser for Dutch Basisregistratie Ondergrond (BRO) XML. It reads geotechnical and geological ground investigation data into plain typed objects.

The BRO defines many registration object types. This library covers three:

  • CPT (Cone Penetration Test)
  • BHR-GT (Geotechnical Borehole)
  • BHR-G (Geological Borehole)

You can see it running on real BRO data at bro.bedrock.engineer.

Install

Section titled “Install”
Terminal window
npm install @bedrock-engineer/bro-xml-parser

The parser works in two environments through separate entry points. The browser build uses the native DOMParser and XPath APIs and has no dependencies. The Node.js build needs two peer dependencies:

Terminal window
npm install @xmldom/xmldom fontoxpath

Load the XML

Section titled “Load the XML”

The parser takes an XML string, so read the document however fits your setup. In the browser, fetch it:

const xmlText = await fetch("/data/CPT000000099543.xml").then((r) => r.text());

In Node.js, read it from disk:

import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises";


const xmlText = await readFile("CPT000000099543.xml", "utf8");

Parse a document

Section titled “Parse a document”

A BROParser takes an XMLAdapter for its environment. Import both from the entry point that matches where your code runs.

In the browser:

import { BROParser, XMLAdapter } from "@bedrock-engineer/bro-xml-parser";


const parser = new BROParser(new XMLAdapter());
const cpt = parser.parseCPT(xmlText);


console.log(cpt.data.length); // number of measurements

In Node.js, import from the /node subpath:

import { BROParser, XMLAdapter } from "@bedrock-engineer/bro-xml-parser/node";


const parser = new BROParser(new XMLAdapter());

If you do not know the file type ahead of time, call parse. It detects the type from the document and returns the matching shape:

const data = parser.parse(xmlText);
console.log(data.meta.dataType); // 'CPT' | 'BHR-GT' | 'BHR-G'

What you get back

Section titled “What you get back”

A parse method returns one object: identification and survey fields at the top level, a meta object, and a data array of rows. For a CPT, data holds measurement rows. For a borehole, it holds soil layers.

const cpt = parser.parseCPT(xmlText);


cpt.broId; // "CPT000000099543"
cpt.finalDepth; // 25.5
cpt.data[0]; // { penetrationLength, coneResistance, localFriction, ... }

meta records the detected schema version and any non-fatal warnings. Check it when a document might use a schema version the library does not target:

if (cpt.meta.warnings.length > 0) {
  console.warn("Parse warnings:", cpt.meta.warnings);
}

The Read parsed results guide covers the shape of each file type.

Resolve reference codes

Section titled “Resolve reference codes”

BRO XML stores domain values as codes such as "langwerpig" or "ISO19901d8v2014". The /reference-codes subpath exports lookup functions, generated from the BRO reference codes API, that turn a code into its official Dutch description:

import { getBhrgtGeotechnicalSoilNameDescription } from "@bedrock-engineer/bro-xml-parser/reference-codes";


const bore = parser.parseBHRGT(xmlText);


for (const layer of bore.data) {
  const name = getBhrgtGeotechnicalSoilNameDescription(layer.geotechnicalSoilName);
  console.log(`${layer.upperBoundary}–${layer.lowerBoundary}m: ${name}`);
}

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”