Rewriting from public_html to root - .htaccess

Question

I try to read many of the answer regarding htaccess but I could not find my way out.
Image this architecture in webhosting: root/public_html/subfolder
Now with the following code in htaccess file (placed in public_html) I can manage that when the domain is type in browser the visitor land in subfolder without digit example.com/subfolder, example.com is enough. It works.
What I would like now is that the visitor will be redirect not in subfolder but in an "extrafolder" placed inside the root (level root that is the same level where the folder public_html is placed but not inside public_html).
So how to modify this code:
# .htaccess main domain to subdirectory redirect
# Do not change this line.
RewriteEngine on
# Change example.com to be your main domain.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?example.com$
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/subfolder/
# Don't change the following two lines.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /subfolder/$1
# Change example.com to be your main domain again.
# Change 'subdirectory' to be the directory you will use for your main domain
# followed by / then the main file for your site, index.php, index.html, etc.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?example.com$
RewriteRule ^(/)?$ /subfolder/index.html [L]
I try changing the /subfolder/ with ../extrafolder/ (supposing the double dot will push up one level) but does not work.
Any idea?
Thank you

Answer 1

The current configuration you put is just working in case you put .htaccess inside the root folder of your website, which in this case is public_html, so no way to access another folder outside that root, except if you have directory alias.
In case you have access to change your apache configurations
You need to have the following steps to completely control the root of your website.
1- Yur apache virtual host configuration (this should be in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.conf) should be something like the following:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/test
<Directory /var/www/test/>
DirectoryIndex index.php
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
3- You need to add this Alias /externalfolder/ "/var/www/test/externalfolder/" to the virtual host configuration above
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/test/public_html
Alias /externalfolder/ "/var/www/test/externalfolder/"
<Directory /var/www/test/public_html>
DirectoryIndex index.php
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Now you can access that via http://example.com/externalfolder/file.php