diff --git a/Smarty.class.php b/Smarty.class.php
index 53f2261b..d9d7a275 100644
--- a/Smarty.class.php
+++ b/Smarty.class.php
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ class Smarty
     var $cache_handler_func   = null;   // function used for cached content. this is
                                         // an alternative to using the built-in file
 										// based caching.
+	var $check_if_modified = true;		// respect If-Modified-Since headers on cached content
 
 	
 	var $default_template_handler_func = ''; // function to handle missing templates
@@ -546,15 +547,26 @@ class Smarty
                     $_smarty_results = $this->_process_cached_inserts($_smarty_results);
                 }
                 if ($_smarty_display) {
-                    echo $_smarty_results;
                     if ($this->debugging)
                     {
                         // capture time for debugging info
                         $this->_smarty_debug_info[$included_tpls_idx]['exec_time'] = $this->_get_microtime() - $debug_start_time;
 
-                        echo $this->_generate_debug_output();
+                        $_smarty_results .= $this->_generate_debug_output();
                     }
-                    return;
+					if( $this->check_if_modified ) {
+						global $HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE;
+						$last_modified_date = substr($HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE,0,strpos($HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE,'GMT')+3);
+						$gmt_mtime = gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', $this->_cache_info['timestamp']).' GMT';
+						if( !$this->_cache_info['insert_tags']
+							&& $gmt_mtime == $last_modified_date ) {
+							header("HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified");
+						}				
+					}
+					header("Content-Length: ".strlen($_smarty_results));
+					header("Last-Modified: ".$gmt_mtime);
+                    echo $_smarty_results;
+					return true;	
                 } else {
                     return $_smarty_results;
                 }
diff --git a/docs.sgml b/docs.sgml
index 17c46c6e..b081974c 100644
--- a/docs.sgml
+++ b/docs.sgml
@@ -1473,13 +1473,18 @@ function get_db_template ($tpl_name, &$tpl_source, &$tpl_timestamp,
 	$get_source=true, &$smarty_obj) {
     
 	if($get_source) {
-    	// do database calls (or whatever) here to fetch your template, populating
+    	// do database call here to fetch your template, populating
     	// $tpl_source and $tpl_timestamp.
-    	$tpl_source = "This is a simulation of a template fetched from a db.";
-    	$tpl_timestamp = mktime();
+		$sql = new SQL;
+		$sql->query("select tpl_source, tpl_timestamp from my_table
+			where tpl_name='$tpl_name'");
+			extract($sql->record);
 	} else {	
-    	// just populate $tpl_timestamp.
-    	$tpl_timestamp = mktime();
+    	// do database call here to populate $tpl_timestamp.
+		$sql = new SQL;
+		$sql->query("select tpl_timestamp from my_table
+			where tpl_name='$tpl_name'");
+			extract($sql->record);
 	}
     
     return true;
diff --git a/libs/Smarty.class.php b/libs/Smarty.class.php
index 53f2261b..d9d7a275 100644
--- a/libs/Smarty.class.php
+++ b/libs/Smarty.class.php
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ class Smarty
     var $cache_handler_func   = null;   // function used for cached content. this is
                                         // an alternative to using the built-in file
 										// based caching.
+	var $check_if_modified = true;		// respect If-Modified-Since headers on cached content
 
 	
 	var $default_template_handler_func = ''; // function to handle missing templates
@@ -546,15 +547,26 @@ class Smarty
                     $_smarty_results = $this->_process_cached_inserts($_smarty_results);
                 }
                 if ($_smarty_display) {
-                    echo $_smarty_results;
                     if ($this->debugging)
                     {
                         // capture time for debugging info
                         $this->_smarty_debug_info[$included_tpls_idx]['exec_time'] = $this->_get_microtime() - $debug_start_time;
 
-                        echo $this->_generate_debug_output();
+                        $_smarty_results .= $this->_generate_debug_output();
                     }
-                    return;
+					if( $this->check_if_modified ) {
+						global $HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE;
+						$last_modified_date = substr($HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE,0,strpos($HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE,'GMT')+3);
+						$gmt_mtime = gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', $this->_cache_info['timestamp']).' GMT';
+						if( !$this->_cache_info['insert_tags']
+							&& $gmt_mtime == $last_modified_date ) {
+							header("HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified");
+						}				
+					}
+					header("Content-Length: ".strlen($_smarty_results));
+					header("Last-Modified: ".$gmt_mtime);
+                    echo $_smarty_results;
+					return true;	
                 } else {
                     return $_smarty_results;
                 }