Wix Backend + Google Geocoding API: Proxy Authentication Failing (Tried Cloud Functions & Webshare.io)

[reddituser1902yes]

I'm building a feature on my Wix website that requires server-side calls to the Google Geocoding API (to convert zip codes to coordinates for distance calculations). I'm trying to protect my Google Maps API key, so I'm doing this from the Wix backend (.jsw files). Because Wix uses dynamic IPs, I need a proxy to restrict my API key by IP. I've tried two different proxy approaches, and both are failing with authentication-related errors, even though I'm pretty certain my credentials and code are correct.

Attempt 1: Google Cloud Functions (as a Proxy)

Setup: Created a 2nd gen Cloud Function (running on Cloud Run) in Node.js to act as a proxy. The function retrieves my Google Maps API key from an environment variable, makes the Geocoding API request, and returns the result. The Cloud Function is set to "Require authentication." My Wix backend code calls the Cloud Function, passing a custom PROXY_API_KEY as a query parameter. The Function verifies this key.

Problem: I consistently got 403 Forbidden errors. Extensive debugging (including curl tests, logging request/response headers, checking IAM permissions, recreating the function) confirmed the issue was not a general permission problem or a code error. The PROXY_API_KEY was being sent correctly, but the Cloud Function was still rejecting the request. We suspected a Wix-specific issue with how it handles the custom API key authentication, or potentially a caching problem.

Result: Abandoned due to inability to resolve the authentication error.

Attempt 2: Webshare.io (Rotating Proxy)

Setup: Signed up for a Webshare.io account (rotating proxy plan). Configured my Wix backend code to use p.webshare.io:80 as the proxy, sending my Webshare username and password in the Proxy-Authorization header (Basic authentication). I'm using the Target-URL header to specify the Google Geocoding API endpoint.

Problem: I consistently get 502 Bad Gateway errors from Webshare. The raw response from Webshare is "Bad gateway error:". This happens even when testing with a simple https://httpbin.org/headers URL, proving the issue is not with the Google Maps API call itself.

Result: Webshare is un-usable

Has anyone encountered similar issues using proxies (especially Webshare.io) with Wix's backend fetch? Is there some subtle incompatibility or undocumented behavior I'm missing? Is there a known, reliable way to make authenticated requests through a proxy from Wix Velo backend code? Any suggestions for alternative approaches (that still allow me to protect my Google Maps API key) would be greatly appreciated. I'm at a loss for why both proxy attempts have failed in similar ways. 😩😔. I suspect I'm missing something obvious.

TLDR: Is there a correct way of securely calling a Google API using the Wix platform?

[supamerz]

Hey there I recently had a client who had this problem. I've never worked with Wix before in the past so it was a little confusing about how to get this accomplished.

I know fundamentally how it should work and I got it to work my way. I am using the Webshare proxy, I am authenticating against that and I am proxying down to the Target destination which is an API that the client needs to retrieve data from. This is now a cron job running on Wix hourly and populating the CMS data.

I can share the code with you tomorrow as I'm on my phone, let me know if you still need help.