Redirect specific url to homepage - regex

Question

I am building a React (frontend) with Wordpress (Backend - REST API) website. My domain is example.com which is going to have my React app (frontend) and on example.com/backend I have the Wordpress installation.
My problem is: I want to redirect example.com/backend and everything on to example.com except example.com/backend/wp-admin (so i can login). Is that do-able?
In a sentence: Can u redirect example.com/backend but have example.com/backend/wp-admin working (not redirecting)?
I tried lots of reggex in my .htaccess but none would do the trick.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^fanismahmalat.com/backend$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^(.)?wp-login.php(.)$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^(.)?wp-admin$
RewriteRule ^(.)$ https://example.com/ [R=301,L]

Answer 1

One way to exclude a URL is to have a rule before the "real" redirect, e.g.
RewriteRule ^backend/wp-admin - [L]
RewriteRule ^backend/ https://example.com [R,L]
The first rule will handle the wp-admin case. The second rule will catch anything else starting with backend/.
Another solution would be to exclude the specific URL from being rewritten
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/backend/wp-admin
RewriteRule ^backend/ https://example.com [R,L]
When the .htaccess file is in the backend sub-folder, the rules are almost the same, but the RewriteRule pattern does not include the backend prefix
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/backend/wp-admin
RewriteRule ^ https://example.com [R,L]
or
RewriteRule ^wp-admin - [L]
RewriteRule ^ https://example.com [R,L]