creating a writeable file

[rakennedy75]

I used the mkdir() function to create a directory and used the 0777 to give it permissions. I also want to create a file inside that directory and write to it. I know how to execute this code, but what I don't know how to do is make sure this file dynamically has permissions so it could be written too. when I go to write my text it says I don't have permissions and it doesn't even create the file. If I am not mistaken, the 'w' in the fopen statement will create a new file if it is not already created.
Here is example of the code I am using:

$new_dir = "mypath/to/directory";
if(file_exists($new_dir))
{
	echo "error! .......";
	exit;
}
mkdir($new_dir, 0777);

$filename = "myFile.txt";
if (is_writable($filename)) {

if (!$handle = fopen($filename, 'w')) {
     print "Cannot open file ($filename)";
     exit;
}

if (!fwrite($handle, $write)) {
    print "Cannot write to file ($filename)";
    exit;
}
   fclose($handle);

} else {
    print "The file $filename is not writable";
}

Any ideas on how I can accomplish this?
Thanks again for your time.

[dalecosp]

Haven't tested my theories, but here they are, inline...

$new_dir = "mypath/to/directory";
if(file_exists($new_dir))
{
    echo "error! .......";
    exit;
}
mkdir($new_dir, 0777);

$filename = "myFile.txt";
if (is_writable($filename)) {
/* calling is_writable() on a var?
Don't you want to touch() and then chmod() the file before checking to see if it's writeable?  If the file hasn't yet been created, this will return false every time.... */

if (!$handle = fopen($filename, 'w')) {
/* I think here you probably want:
         $handle=fopen($filename, 'w');
         If ($handle) {
or else rearrange the logic:
        if ($handle=fopen($filename, 'w') {
               // do some writing
    } else {
      now your stuff...*/
         print "Cannot open file ($filename)";
         exit;
    }

if (!fwrite($handle, $write)) {
    print "Cannot write to file ($filename)";
    exit;
}
   fclose($handle);

} else {
    print "The file $filename is not writable";
}