You can do this, change the MessageElementCollection to KeyValueConfigurationCollection, and add the type as KeyValueConfigurationElement instead of MessageElement
[ConfigurationCollection(typeof(KeyValueConfigurationElement), AddItemName = "Message",
CollectionType = ConfigurationElementCollectionType.BasicMap)]

Now in the configuration (messages element) change the “name”, “value” to “key” “value” (this is not necessary if you can explicitly provide it)

Sample:

Now use this code to add a new key value to the config section:

// Open App.Config of executable
System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

((MyConfiguration)config.Sections["MyConfiguration"]).Messages.Add(“Tweet”, “Tweet”);
// Save the configuration file.
config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
// Force a reload of a changed section.
ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(“MyConfiguration”);
MyConfig = GetConfiguration();

Console.WriteLine(“Message Tweet: ” + MyConfig.Messages["Tweet"].Value);

Similarly for removing use Remove() method instead of Add()

Let me know if it works for you…

——————-
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections.Specialized;

namespace tryConfigApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// reading AppSettings—————
int pingIntervalMSec = Convert.ToInt32(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["pingIntervalMSec"].ToString());
Console.WriteLine(“pingIntervalMSec: {0}”, pingIntervalMSec.ToString());
//——————-
// reading specific custom section in custom group————–
NameValueCollection serverSection = (NameValueCollection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection(@”Servers/mrprodapp01″);
if (serverSection != null)
{
foreach (string key in serverSection)
{
Console.WriteLine(“Section Key: {0}, {1}”, key, serverSection[key]);
}
}
//—————————————–

// — get specific custom group
System.Configuration.Configuration configBB = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
ConfigurationSectionGroup serversGroup = configBB.SectionGroups.Get(“Servers”);

Console.WriteLine(“Key value: {0}”, serversGroup.Sections.Count.ToString() );

for(int cnt=0; cnt < serversGroup.Sections.Count; cnt++)
{
ConfigurationSection csTmp = serversGroup.Sections[cnt];
serverSection = (NameValueCollection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("Servers/" + csTmp.SectionInformation.Name);
if (serverSection != null)
{
foreach (string key in serverSection)
{
Console.WriteLine("Section Key: Servers/{0} {1}, {2}", csTmp.SectionInformation.Name, key, serverSection[key]);
}
}
}

Console.WriteLine("————– LOOPING ALL —————");
//——— loop over all custom groups ——————————

ConfigurationSectionGroupCollection groups = configBB.SectionGroups;
foreach (System.Configuration.ConfigurationSectionGroup grr in groups)
{

if (grr.Name.StartsWith("System.", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) continue;
// if (!grr.IsDeclared)
// continue;

ConfigurationSectionGroup serversGroupA = configBB.SectionGroups.Get(grr.Name);

for (int cnt = 0; cnt < serversGroupA.Sections.Count; cnt++)
{
ConfigurationSection csTmp = serversGroup.Sections[cnt];
serverSection = (NameValueCollection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection(grr.Name + "/" + csTmp.SectionInformation.Name);
if (serverSection != null)
{
foreach (string key in serverSection)
{
Console.WriteLine("Section Key: {0} {1}, {2}", grr.Name + "/" +csTmp.SectionInformation.Name, key, serverSection[key]);
}
}
}

}

}
}
}

The issue I am having is that my Job ConfigurationElement class has to have a property that returns the JOBDETAIL element. However, JOBDETAIL element needs to be a KeyValueConfigurationCollection since every JOBDETAIL can have different amount of key/values. I can get this to work if there is only one, JobDetail elements, but a collection of jobDetails won’t work. Any ideas?