Can't get PreferenceFragmentCompat to work

Question

I am trying to create an Activity that extends AppCompatActivity and has two fragments inside of it (one below another - just by using a LinearLayout). I would like the first fragment to extend the PreferenceFragmentCompat class from the support-v7 library.

I followed Google's short example regarding PreferenceFragmentCompat as shown at https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v7/preference/PreferenceFragmentCompat.html.

Here is my current code:

GroupDetailsActivity.java

public class GroupDetailsActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

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

        GroupDetailsPrefFragment prefFragment = GroupDetailsPrefFragment.newInstance();
        GroupDetailsMembersFragment membersFragment = GroupDetailsMembersFragment.newInstance();

        FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
        fm.beginTransaction()
            .add(R.id.flPrefFragment, prefFragment, GroupDetailsPrefFragment.TAG)
            .add(R.id.flMembersFragment, membersFragment, GroupDetailsMembersFragment.TAG)
            .commit();
    }
}

GroupDetailsPrefFragment .java - The problematic fragment

public class GroupDetailsPrefFragment extends PreferenceFragmentCompat {

    public static final String TAG = "GroupDetailsPrefFragment";

    @Override
    public void onCreatePreferences(Bundle bundle, String s) {
        setPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.group_details_preferences, s);
    }

    public static GroupDetailsPrefFragment newInstance() {
        GroupDetailsPrefFragment fragment = new GroupDetailsPrefFragment();
        return fragment;
    }
}

GroupDetailsMembersFragment.java - Completely empty for now..

public class GroupDetailsMembersFragment extends Fragment {

    public static final String TAG = "GroupDetailsMembersFragment";

    public static GroupDetailsMembersFragment newInstance() {
        GroupDetailsMembersFragment fragment = new     GroupDetailsMembersFragment();
        return fragment;
    }
}

activity_group_details.xml - Activity's layout

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

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

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

</LinearLayout>

group_details_preferences.xml - The preference XML file

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

    <Preference
        android:title="@string/remove_me"
        android:key="@string/pref_key_settings_remove_me"/>
    <Preference
        android:title="@string/delete_group"
        android:key="@string/pref_key_settings_delete_group"/>

</PreferenceScreen>

Trying to compile and run the code above lead me into a few errors, the first one was regarding a preference theme that was not set. I have quickly scanned the internet and found you need to add the following line into your Activity's theme : <item name="preferenceTheme">@style/PreferenceThemeOverlay.v14.Material</item>

To do so, I was needed to add the support-v14 library to gradle!

Trying to run the code again, lead me to another error, which is the reason I am posting this, and so far I didn't find any way to solve this issue. Here is the crash log :

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.cochat.android/com.cochat.android.ui.groups.details.GroupDetailsActivity}: java.lang.RuntimeException: Content has view with id attribute 'android.R.id.list_container' that is not a ViewGroup class
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2305)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2363)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.access$900(ActivityThread.java:161)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1265)
                                                                       at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
                                                                       at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:157)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5356)
                                                                       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
                                                                       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
                                                                       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1265)
                                                                       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1081)
                                                                       at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
                                                                    Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Content has view with id attribute 'android.R.id.list_container' that is not a ViewGroup class
                                                                       at android.support.v7.preference.PreferenceFragmentCompat.onCreateView(PreferenceFragmentCompat.java:269)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.Fragment.performCreateView(Fragment.java:2184)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java:1298)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveFragmentsToInvisible(FragmentManager.java:2323)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl.executeOpsTogether(FragmentManager.java:2136)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl.optimizeAndExecuteOps(FragmentManager.java:2092)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl.execPendingActions(FragmentManager.java:1998)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentController.execPendingActions(FragmentController.java:388)
                                                                       at android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity.onStart(FragmentActivity.java:607)
                                                                       at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.onStart(AppCompatActivity.java:181)
                                                                       at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnStart(Instrumentation.java:1189)
                                                                       at android.app.Activity.performStart(Activity.java:5441)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2278)
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2363) 
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.access$900(ActivityThread.java:161) 
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1265) 
                                                                       at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102) 
                                                                       at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:157) 
                                                                       at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5356) 
                                                                       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) 
                                                                       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515) 
                                                                       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1265) 
                                                                       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1081) 
                                                                       at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method) 

Been stuck on this for a while now, tried looking up different posts on stackoverflow or other websites, seen some solutions, but for some reason none of them managed to solve my problem.

Edit:

My gradle file contains the following:

compileSdkVersion 25
buildToolsVersion '25.0.2'
...
compile 'com.android.support:preference-v7:25.1.0'
compile 'com.android.support:preference-v14:25.1.0'

Update Jan 02 '17

I've been looking into the source code of PreferenceFragmentCompat and seen it is trying to load the following layout: R.layout.preference_list_fragment. In the onCreateView() method of the class, it is inflating the layout, and trying to look for the id android.R.id.list_container. The problem is that there is no such id within the layout.

Here is a code snippet from the PreferenceFragmentCompat:

final View view = themedInflater.inflate(mLayoutResId, container, false);

final View rawListContainer = view.findViewById(AndroidResources.ANDROID_R_LIST_CONTAINER);
if (!(rawListContainer instanceof ViewGroup)) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Content has view with id attribute "
                + "'android.R.id.list_container' that is not a ViewGroup class");
}

While

private int mLayoutResId = R.layout.preference_list_fragment;

Still looking for a solution, thanks!

Answer 1

I got past this using the following bugfix: https://github.com/Gericop/Android-Support-Preference-V7-Fix

Simple 3 step process is to update the app's build.gradle,
Remove:

compile 'com.android.support:preference-v7:25.0.1'
compile 'com.android.support:preference-v14:25.0.1'

Add

compile 'com.takisoft.fix:preference-v7:25.0.1.0'

Then update your app's theme for preferences to use PreferenceFixTheme

(You're already using PreferenceFragmentCompat so good to go).

UPDATE:
On further investigation, with api 25.1.0, AppCompat worked fine once I realized the very strict restrictions on the style for Preferences.

I found this resource very helpful in getting everything set up nicely: