How can I show a preferences screen on older Android devices i.e. Gingerbread and Froyo?

Question

I need to show a preferences screen from my application. I've managed to implement this and it works on Ice-Cream Sandwich and newer devices but doesn't work on older devices like Gingebread and Froyo. I'm using ActionBarSherlock as a compatibility library to support older devices.

Here's the code for the Activity that contains the preference screen:

public class Settings extends Activity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);    
        getFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                .replace(android.R.id.content, new Preferences())
                .commit();
    }

}

This is the sample code from my activity that invokes the preferences screen:

public class Trend extends SherlockActivity {

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem itmMenuitem) {
        if (itmMenuitem.getItemId() == R.id.search) {
            startActivity(new Intent(getBaseContext(), Settings.class));
            return true;
        }
    }

}

When users try and open the preferences screen on older devices, I get an exception that reads:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.mridang.stupidapp.Settings.getFragmentManager
at com.mridang.stupidapp.Settings.onCreate(Settings.java:15)

How should I modify my preferences screen to work with older devices ie API 8? Thanks.

Answer 1

Neither ActionBarSherlock nor the Android Support Library provides support for Preference Fragments.

You need to revert to Perference Activities as explained in the Settings Documentation .

There are a few old questions that discuss the same topic:

• PreferenceActivity Android 4.0 and earlier
• Was PreferenceFragment intentionally excluded from the compatibility package?