PreferenceFragment not shown when using ActionBarActivity

Question

I have a PreferenceFragment and it can be shown inside an Activity. However, when I switch the Activity to an ActionBarActivity, the fragment is not shown. (I can only see an action bar and a blank white screen below.) The theme I am using is Theme.AppCompat.Light, therefore I need to use ActionBarActivity in order to display the ActionBar.

Here is my original code:

public class SettingsActivity extends Activity { // later changed to extend ActionBarActivity    

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Display the fragment as the main content
        getFragmentManager().beginTransaction().
                replace(android.R.id.content, new SettingsFragment()).commit();
    }
}

Answer 1

I'm extending ActionBarActivity and my PreferenceFragment works.

I think you need to call setContentView() on your Activity, to have an activity layout in which the fragment will be loaded.

activity_preference_layout.xml

    <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    tools:context="your.package.SettingsActivity">

    <include layout="@layout/toolbar"/>

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/preference_container"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">

    </FrameLayout>
</LinearLayout>

Then your Activity should be something like:

public class SettingsActivity extends ActionBarActivity {    

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_preference_layout);

        getFragmentManager().beginTransaction().
                replace(R.id.preference_container, new SettingsFragment()).commit();
    }
}

Note that I've replaced android.R.id.content with R.id.preference_container, which is the frame defined in the layout above.