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Best approach for handling same layouts for different activities

I have been working on application which has 3 types of accounts related to it. We create a single layout and view/hide items on it depending on, from which account you are currently logged in.
With this approach, we have activities/fragments doing a lot of different things, they handle all cases wrapped in if/else checks etc. With growing project, it is becoming hard to maintain these classes.
Say, if I have to hide a view in certain scenario, I have to look around many if/else checks just to hide a single button because if I hide it on one place other check will make it visible again, really hard to maintain.
I am looking forward for best advises on this issue from the experts.

If you are struggling with a lot of if/else scattered in the code, maybe you should use polymorphism in your code.
Create an abstract class for the Activity, then specialize it for each particular type.
Use the Factory method pattern for creating objects of this hierarchy. This method will use the parameters for deciding which concrete class to instantiate, and then it will initialize the instance being returned.
Use the Template Method pattern if there is an algorithm common to all sub-classes but that contains some open steps that should be implemented by each class.
Use the State/Strategy pattern if you need polymorphic code that may be modified at runtime.

If your separate apps require minor customization and theme changes, but are really the same base app, multiple flavors is definitely the way to go. However, if both apps require a lot of custom code differences, you might want to rethink using multiple flavors strategy.
Also, take notice of the difference between flavors and build types. Use flavors for situations where you might need different versions of the same app in the Play Store, for example, free and pro, or for situations where you are customizing the same app for multiple clients.
for details http://www.androidauthority.com/building-multiple-flavors-android-app-706436

you have create new xml files in which has common view's for your activity and fragment then need to use include tag in xml for adding those common view's into your activities & fragments xml.

Create different xml for same layout and use <include layout="#"/>
Tag to create the layout, it will reduce if/else and also provide you the code re-usability

I think you should create separate layout for all 3 types of account and you can create PickLayout static class/method to pick the layout by type
int getLayout(int type){
return layoutMap.get(type);
}
if you have re-usable layout then you should use include, merge or you can use ViewStub also.
if you have chain of if/else then you should use Map link that will be scale-able, error-prone free.
And try to follow android suggested design-pattern that will be helpful for writing test case also.

How to present an Android project when only the layout has to be done

I have to make a new design for an Android App, but I only have to create the visual part (native Android). The app logic would be created by another guy based on what I present to him.
My question is? How would this be managed correctly? Do I have to make the XML's of each layout? How could I show the other person my progress?
What things should I consider when doing this?
Thanks

You need to mock the app first (create a prototype) as suggested by NoChinDeluxe. Then if you guys go ahead and decide to code it, the answer to your problem is separation of responsibilities. As Jeffrey said UI work is not only about layouts, but code as well. What I would suggest is that you and the other guy get together first and define some contracts (interfaces) that will allow you guys to split the work and work in parallel. Therefore, he can create the business logic of the app without worrying about the UI implementation. You, on the other hand, will have to mock that business logic he's implementing at the beginning so it doesn't block your UI work.

you could create layout XML files for all the Activities/screens, using resources (icons, etc as suggested by #NoChinDeluxe). However since you'd want to run the mock app, you might want to also create a "throw-away" Activity that allows you navigate to different screens of the app. Here you can add a number of buttons and when you click on each button, your app shows a specific activity. This way, you will be able to show your colleague all the screens you have created. I hope this helps.

This may not be what you want to hear, but creating Android layouts isn't a design task. They are closely tied to the code, and the design of them is going to depend on how the engineer chooses to implement the app.
Here's an example. You might have a grid with 4 cells. You could use a RelativeLayout, a LinearLayout, or GridLayout, or a GridViewLayout. Which will use choose?
I'd suggest providing your engineer with mockups and graphical assets where required. Let him / her take those and create the layouts. If you want to create layouts as a (visual-only) reference for engineering, great, but it's certainly a non-optimal tool for that task.

Things You will consider when doing visual part:-
You have to work on the resource folder of your application
Layout : All Layout you have to prepare.
Drawable : Images and drawable .xml.
Inside Values folder you will find
dimen.xml : For different devices dimen you can set.
string.xml : You can store string for hint or other purpose.
style.xml : For designing or theme or custom design.
color.xml : Color which are going to used in the application.

MainActivity is too big. How do I split it into multiple files

I'm building an Android App which has a complex screen with lots of logic.
It currently contains a listview, tabs, search box, and a panel for updating user stuff.
The probem is that the mainactivity code file became very big, although I'm seperating things to different layers, because there's a lot of UI components which affect things in the screen.
I'm trying to seperate it to several files but I don't seem to do it right.
As much as I understood Fragments is not what I need here. Are there any other ways?
Just need some directions please.
I'm asking mostly about the code, not the layout (Although I don't care changing the layout too).
Currently it's 616 lines and the biggest problem is that we are a team and the maintenance became hell...

Create utility class and put your listeners and adapters there. Use main activity only to initialise view instances and setting listeners and adapters.

Although 616 is not a particularly big file you could use Fragments as they just add another layer of abstraction. They also have a similar lifecycle to activities.
This tutorial shows how to add fragments to tabs
http://developer.android.com/training/implementing-navigation/lateral.html

You can create a base class put all the initializations and listerners there.
Likewise for function to be implemented later create a template in base class and override it in main activity. It works !

Laying out controls

I'm trying to figure out the best course of action when it comes to drawing various control configurations. In my case, I'm using images as buttons and would like to create "screens" for different control configurations. Below is an example:
Basically, I'd have a layout for each configuration. Depending on which configuration the user requests, different control layouts will be used. There's only ever one configuration set loaded at any given time.
What's the general direction I should take for this? Should I just use Fragments for each configuration? I imagine I'd want to use a layout for each control configuration. Controls are required to be precise, so perhaps this library, in conjunction with layouts, will work for my needs?

I would save the requested layout in SharedPreferences and in the onCreate() method get the layout id like this:
SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences();
int requestedLayout = prefs.getInt("requestedLayout", R.id.layout_default);
setContentView(requestedLayout);
Note: this only works if all layouts contain the same views, otherwise fragments will be better for this purpose.

Toolbar below ListView

I am working on an application that involves me having to place a toolbar at the bottom of each activity. The toolbar will have 4 buttons on it, each starting new activities.
I am just wondering, and I apologize for how general the question, is there a proper way to go about implementing this? my plan was to but a linear layout element in each xml layout file with horizontal orientation. Then four button elements inside of that...
It seems like a huge amount of work considering I will have a lot of activities..

What you want sounds a lot like Android's ActionBar. Check this link for a guide to its usage. If you use this, your app will look and feel more consistent with the operating system, as so many apps now use the ActionBar (which is a lot of them), and you gain a lot of power for what you want to show there, and how you want to do it.
ActionBar was only introduced in Android version 3 (Honeycomb), but there's a compatibility library, ActionBarSherlock which allows you to use it in older versions of Android as well.
Hope it works for you!

You can use a same xml for various views. So I suggest creating a generic xml, then using Inflaters and other resources as strings, xmls etc. to prepare the generic xml whenever any Activity is loaded. So you can reuse it the xml.