How to add an ActionBar from separate class in Android using AppCompat?

Question

I am building a very simple app that has 1 Action Bar. I am using the AppCompat libraries to support from Android 2.1 or above in a vaguely uniform fashion.

I am following the Google Guides and have become a little stuck. I am a bit of a noob so please bear with me :)

My main class extends Activity so I created a new class which extends ActionBarActivity.

package com.example.simpledice;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.view.Menu;

public class DiceActionBar extends ActionBarActivity
{

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_dice_action_bar);
        ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
    {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.dice_action_bar, menu);
        return true;
    }

}

Then I added it like this:

public class MainActivity extends Activity
{

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        DiceActionBar diceActionBar = new DiceActionBar();

This does compile and deploys but no action bar. I have also tried something similar with fragments but no joy (couldn't even get them to compile!). I am only adding a single item to the action bar so it does seem a little overkill as it stands.

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?

EDIT
Updated code as per Tanis.7x answer. Unfortunately, ActionBar is still not displaying. Updated code:

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity
{
    private ActionBar actionBar;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
        actionBar.show();
}

@Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
    {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        // Inflate the menu items for use in the action bar
        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
    }

}

Manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.simpledice"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="7"
        android:targetSdkVersion="18" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"
        android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow">
        <activity
            android:name="com.example.simpledice.MainActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name" 
            android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

res/menu/main.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
          android:icon="@drawable/mute"
          android:title="@string/muteOption"
          android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
          />

</menu>

Answer 1

Thanks for answers Tanix. Your video found the solution in the end. The problem was here:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
          android:icon="@drawable/mute"
          android:title="@string/muteOption"
          android:showAsAction="ifRoom"
          />
</menu>

When using any pre-honeycomb features, any items listed in menu that are after honeycomb should be in XML namespace "yourapp", like this:

<menu 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:SimpleDice="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
         >
    <item android:id="@+id/action_search"
          SimpleDice:icon="@drawable/mute"
          android:title="@string/muteOption"
          SimpleDice:showAsAction="ifRoom"
          />
</menu>

Action Bar comes up like a dream now.

Solved.