here is the code :

Public Shared Function GetConnectionString(ByVal ConnStr As String) As String
Dim ar As New Configuration.AppSettingsReader
Try
Return ar.GetValue(ConnStr, GetType(String))
Catch ex As Exception
Return String.Empty
End Try
End Function

and the web.config :

configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key=”MKTProposal” value=”server=myserver;database=dbname;uid=app;pwd=apppass”/>
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<!–