Link_to helper not reaching external link

RoR newbie and working on a pinning app similar to pinterest.
In my form_for helper I try to link_to an external web page
<%= link_to @pin.url, “http://#{@pin.url}” %> but I get
No route matches [GET] “/www.xxx.com”
and the server is trying to reach
http://localhost:3000/www.xxx.com

I can’t seem to get rid of the local call.
I’ve attached both my partial form view for create and update, and the
controller file as well.
Would appreciate a FULL answer. My online course instructor is useless
and keeps giving me the same answer as I typed above but ‘duh’ already
did that, now what???

Hey Michelle,

Checkout the URL Helpers Reference:

Alternatively, I’d suggest just using an tag and setting the href
attribute to the link.

Hope this helps

Ben