Should use XMLSerializer class .
You can try something like
[Serializable()]
public class FieldName
{
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("EntityType")]
public string EntityType { get; set; }
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
...
}
[Serializable()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRoot("validationrule")]
public class validationrules
{
[XmlArray("FieldName")]
[XmlArrayItem("FieldName", typeof(FieldName))]
public FieldName[] fieldNames { get; set; }
}
validationrule rules= null;
string path = "xmlpath.xml";
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(validationrules));
using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(path))
{
rules = serializer.Deserialize(reader) as validationrules;
}
Hope this helps