htaccess - Access root subfolder

Question

I believe this question is purely PHP related, a language in which my knowledge is limited and I'm still learning things, keep that in mind.

I installed Ionize CMS on a client's server and everything is going smooth. But there is one little thing I wish I could do and it reaches the extent of my PHP knowledge.

I want to know if it is possible to access the content of a folder located at the root of my site from my web browser, which is not ionize related. I need to access the old backup of a website. In other words, I want to be able to write in the url the path and see the content in the web browser. Ex:

http://mysite/backup/index.php

For the moment, if I try that, the page displays the ionize 404 not found message.

I guess it has something to do with the htaccess file, but I'm really not sure how to modify this file to do what I want, if possible.

I did a bit of research and found this code, but if someone could explain it to me that would be great, as my php knowledge is not that great like mentioned earlier. I don't want to test it right now without knowing what it does, I don't want to permanently damage my website rewrite function..

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/subdirectoryname1/(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/subdirectoryname2/(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]
</IfModule>

Anyone could spare some knowledge on the feasibility of my question?

Much appreciated

Answer 1

This rule basically says if the requested URI (folder) is subdirectoryname1 or subdirectoryname2 don't do anything and stop processing the rules. So a rule like this should work for you. The rules have to come before your ionize rules.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/subdirectoryname1/(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/subdirectoryname2/(.*)$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]
</IfModule>

You can also just do this for your situation which does the same thing.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^backup/?(.*?)/?$ - [L]