diff --git a/tinyxml2_vendor-extras.cmake b/tinyxml2_vendor-extras.cmake
index 740e84f..33efeb8 100644
--- a/tinyxml2_vendor-extras.cmake
+++ b/tinyxml2_vendor-extras.cmake
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2019 Open Source Robotics Foundation, Inc.
+# Copyright 2019-2020 Open Source Robotics Foundation, Inc.
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -13,3 +13,34 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 list(INSERT CMAKE_MODULE_PATH 0 "${tinyxml2_vendor_DIR}/Modules")
+
+if(TinyXML2_FOUND AND NOT TARGET tinyxml2::tinyxml2)
+  message(STATUS "TinyXML2 was already found when tinyxml2_vendor was included, adding missing imported target tinyxml2::tinyxml2")
+  # TINYXML2_LIBRARY is composed of debug;<path\to\debug.lib>;optimized;<path\to\release.lib>
+  # we have to extract the appropriate component based on the current configuration.
+  list(LENGTH TINYXML2_LIBRARY TINYXML_LIBRARY_LIST_LENGTH)
+  if(NOT ${TINYXML_LIBRARY_LIST_LENGTH} EQUAL 4)
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "Unable to extract the library file path from ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY}")
+  endif()
+  if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES DEBUG)
+    list(GET TINYXML2_LIBRARY 0 ASSERT_DEBUG)
+    if(NOT ${ASSERT_DEBUG} STREQUAL "debug")
+      message(FATAL_ERROR "could not parse debug library path from ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY}")
+    endif()
+    list(GET TINYXML2_LIBRARY 1 TINYXML2_LIBRARY_PATH)
+  else()
+    list(GET TINYXML2_LIBRARY 2 ASSERT_OPTIMIZED)
+    if(NOT ${ASSERT_OPTIMIZED} STREQUAL "optimized")
+      message(FATAL_ERROR "could not parse library path from ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY}")
+    endif()
+    list(GET TINYXML2_LIBRARY 3 TINYXML2_LIBRARY_PATH)
+  endif()
+  if(NOT EXISTS ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY_PATH})
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "library file path ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY_PATH} does not exist")
+  endif()
+
+  add_library(tinyxml2::tinyxml2 UNKNOWN IMPORTED)
+  set_property(TARGET tinyxml2::tinyxml2 PROPERTY IMPORTED_LOCATION ${TINYXML2_LIBRARY_PATH})
+  set_property(TARGET tinyxml2::tinyxml2 PROPERTY INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES ${TINYXML2_INCLUDE_DIR})
+  list(APPEND TinyXML2_TARGETS tinyxml2::tinyxml2)
+endif()