Can't get screen to show settings options

Question

EDIT Added MyActivity.java (i.e., main activity) at bottom EDIT2 Added lines to MyActivity.java (this solved the problem)

I have preferences set up but have no way to access them. No matter what style I pick in xml and no matter what virtual device or style I pick in Android Studio (AS) 1.1.0, the screen lacks the 3 dots shown below. Not even the pulldown styles that include LightActionBar and DarkActionBar show the dots.

In xml, I've tried <style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Holo.ButtonBar">, which finally worked last night (was having same problem) on a small app, and also, for parent, I tried Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar and other things.

I don't so much care if I see the 3 dots; just ANYTHING to expose the preferences screen.

I've also tried never, ifroom, and always for showAsAction:

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
      xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
            tools:context=".MyActivity">

<item android:id="@+id/itemFocus"
      android:title="@string/focusAtClue"
      android:orderInCategory="200"
      app:showAsAction="never"/>

Here's preferences.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <PreferenceCategory
        >
        <CheckBoxPreference
            android:key="@string/focusAfterShow"
            android:title="@string/focusAfterShow"
            android:summary="Always place the cursor at the 'clue' (sum) after tapping 'Show'."
            android:defaultValue="true"
            />
    </PreferenceCategory>
    <PreferenceCategory
        >
        <CheckBoxPreference
            android:key="@string/screenSaver"
            android:title="@string/screenSaver"

            android:summary="Keep screen on at all times while running this app."
            android:defaultValue="true"
            />
    </PreferenceCategory>

</PreferenceScreen>

Here's SettingsFragment.java:

import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.content.SharedPreferences.OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.preference.PreferenceFragment;
import android.preference.PreferenceManager;
import android.util.Log;

public class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener {
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
  }
  @Override
  public void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences().registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
  }
  @Override
  public void onPause() {
    super.onPause();
    getPreferenceScreen().getSharedPreferences().unregisterOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
  }
  @Override
  public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String key) {
    SharedPreferences sharedPref = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(getActivity());
    if (key.equalsIgnoreCase("pie_type")){
      Log.w("Settings", sharedPref.getString(key, ""));
    }
  }
}

And SettingsActivity.java:

    import android.app.Activity;
    import android.os.Bundle;

public class SettingsActivity extends Activity {
  public static final String SETTINGS = "com.whatever.kakurocombosbuildvariants.settings";
  public static final String FIRST_USE = "com.whateverkakurocombosbuildvariants.firstUse";

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_settings);
  }

}

Here's where SettingsActivity is invoked in MyActivity.java:

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
  {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
      case R.id.menu_settings:
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, SettingsActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);

        return true;

      default:
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
  }

MyActivity.java (main activity; 300 LINES OF EXTRANEOUS CODE DELETED)

public class MyActivity extends Activity {

  public final String
      prefix = "com.XXXX.kakurocombosbuildvariants"
      , SETTINGS =        prefix + ".settings"
      , FIRST_USE =       prefix + ".firstUse"
      , FOCUS_AT_CLUE =   prefix + ".focusAtClue"
      , SCREENSAVER =     prefix + ".screensaver"
      , literally_Focus_At_Clue = "Focus at clue"
      , literally_Screen_saver  = "Screen saver"
      ;
  public boolean firstUse;

  SharedPreferences preferences;
  SharedPreferences.Editor editor;

  boolean screenSaver;//= false;
  boolean focusAtClue ;//= true;

  AlertDialog alertDialog;

  private void makeActionOverflowMenuShown() {
    //devices with hardware menu button (e.g. Samsung Note) don't show action overflow menu
    try {
      ViewConfiguration config = ViewConfiguration.get(this);
      Field menuKeyField = ViewConfiguration.class.getDeclaredField("sHasPermanentMenuKey");
      if (menuKeyField != null) {
        menuKeyField.setAccessible(true);
        menuKeyField.setBoolean(config, false);
      }
    } catch (Exception e) {
      popupMessage("Problem making actionbar overflow");
    }
  }

  void showKeypad(){
    getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_STATE_ALWAYS_VISIBLE);
  }

  public static boolean isTablet(Context ctx){
    return (ctx.getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout
        & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK
    )
        >= Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE;
  }

  @Override public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
  {
    return true;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
  {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
      case R.id.menu_settings:
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, SettingsActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);

        return true;

      default:
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
  }

  private void setScreensaver()
  {
    if( ! screenSaver) getWindow().addFlags  (WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);
    else               getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);
  }

  @Override protected void
  onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) // ************************** ON CREATE **********
  {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

/////////////////////////// EDIT2 ///////////////////////////////////////    

    getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
    getWindow().setFormat(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);

/////////////////////////// EDIT2 ///////////////////////////////////////    

    if(! FREE) setContentView(R.layout.activity_my);
    else       setContentView(R.layout.activity_free);

    SharedPreferences preferences = getSharedPreferences(SETTINGS, MODE_PRIVATE);

    firstUse = preferences.getBoolean(FIRST_USE, true);
    if(firstUse){
      Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Welcome to Kakuro Combos", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
      editor = preferences.edit();
      editor.putBoolean(FIRST_USE, false);
      editor.commit();
    }

    alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this).create();
    alertDialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_NEUTRAL, "OK",
                          new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() { public void
                                                                  onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which)
                          {
                            dialog.dismiss();
                          }});
    showKeypad();

    makeActionOverflowMenuShown();

    getWindow().setFormat(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);

    showKeypad();

    setScreensaver();


  } // onCreate
}

/////////////////////// EDIT2 ////////////////////////////

  @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
  { getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
    return true;
  }

/////////////////////// EDIT2 ////////////////////////////

Answer 1

It looks like main issue is that you're not inflating your menu xml.

Try using ActionBarActivity for your MainActivity, and add onCreateOptionsMenu() in order to inflate the menu xml.

public class MyActivity extends ActionBarActivity{

    //...........

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

    //............
}