openFileOutput throws exception

I am writing data to xml files in my android app. I looked up how to properly do file IO and found that I need to use openFileOutput. As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with my code but it keeps throwing an exception at the line I have a try-catch wrapped around in the following code:

public void writeSearchXML(ArrayList<String> searches, String file)
        throws Exception {
    // try {
    // File newxmlfile = new File(file);
    // newxmlfile.createNewFile();
    // } catch (Exception e) {
    // }
    try {
        // THE FOLLOWING LINE THROWS AN EXCEPTION EVERY TIME
        FileOutputStream out = openFileOutput(file,
                Context.MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new Exception("Failing on fileoutput stream searches.");
    }
    FileOutputStream fOut = openFileOutput(file,
            Context.MODE_WORLD_READABLE);
    // we create a XmlSerializer in order to write xml data
    XmlSerializer serializer = Xml.newSerializer();
    // we set the FileOutputStream as output for the serializer, using UTF-8
    // encoding
    serializer.setOutput(fOut, "UTF-8");
    // Write <?xml declaration with encoding (if encoding not null) and
    // standalone flag (if standalone not null)
    serializer.startDocument(null, Boolean.valueOf(true));
    // set indentation option
    serializer.setFeature(
            "http://xmlpull.org/v1/doc/features.html#indent-output", true);
    // start a tag called "root"
    serializer.startTag(null, "searches");
    for (String search : searches) {
    开发者_JS百科    serializer.startTag(null, "search");
        serializer.text(search);
        serializer.endTag(null, "search");
    }
    // // i indent code just to have a view similar to xml-tree
    // serializer.startTag(null, "username");
    // serializer.text(username);
    // serializer.endTag(null, "username");
    // serializer.startTag(null, "password");
    // serializer.text(password);
    // serializer.endTag(null, "password");
    // //serializer.attribute(null, "attribute", "value");
    serializer.endTag(null, "searches");
    serializer.endDocument();
    // write xml data into the FileOutputStream
    serializer.flush();
    // finally we close the file stream
    fOut.close();
}

The only problem in all this code is just that one line. I've searched all over the internet and I haven't been able to fine a solution. What can I do to fix this?

UPDATE: The exception being thrown is a fileNotFound exception. This leads me to believe that the openFileOutput function doesn't actually create the file like it says it does in the description. What can I do in Android to create the file without using openFileOutput?

I found the answer here: android what is wrong with openFileOutput?

openFileOutput has to be called using an activity's context.