How to setup preference activity correctly?

Question

I am working on getting my preferences screen setup, but I can't seem to get my preference activity working right.

I created a new blank activity called SettingsActivity that extends PreferenceActivity and removed setContentView(R.layout.activity_settings); from the onCreate method, and replaced it with addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);.

In my main activity class, I setup a new intent to call my SettingsActivity class when I clicked the settings button that android creates by default.

I added a test item to my preferences.xml and ran it with this result. What happened to my Nav bar? Do I have to do something to add it? Android Studio shows that addPreferencesFromResource is deprecated. What am I supposed to do?

MainActivity method that calls SettingsActivity

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
    // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
    // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
    int id = item.getItemId();

    //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
    if (id == R.id.action_settings) {

        Intent intent = new Intent(this, SettingsActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);

        return true;
    }

    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

SettingsActivity

public class SettingsActivity extends PreferenceActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
}

Here is my preferences.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen          
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"   
android:layout_height="match_parent">

<CheckBoxPreference
    android:key="test check box"
    android:title="Test"
    android:defaultValue="false"/>

</PreferenceScreen>

Answer 1

From API 11 you should switch to PreferenceFragment, which allows you to have an Activity that extends from ActionBarActivity (which gives you action bar).

public static class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Load the preferences from an XML resource
        addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
    }
    ...
}

public class SettingsActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

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

Source: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/settings.html#Fragment