diff -pubr CGI-Wiki-Knew/MANIFEST CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/MANIFEST
--- CGI-Wiki-Knew/MANIFEST	Mon Nov 24 20:48:55 2003
+++ CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/MANIFEST	Thu Dec  4 20:42:41 2003
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ t/012_blank_data.t
 t/013_fuzzy_title_match.t
 t/014_advanced_metadata.t
 t/015_dangling_links.t
+t/016_node_version.t
 t/050_mysql_store.t
 t/051_pg_store.t
 t/052_sqlite_store.t
diff -pubr CGI-Wiki-Knew/lib/CGI/Wiki/Store/Database.pm CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/lib/CGI/Wiki/Store/Database.pm
--- CGI-Wiki-Knew/lib/CGI/Wiki/Store/Database.pm	Mon Nov 24 20:49:15 2003
+++ CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/lib/CGI/Wiki/Store/Database.pm	Thu Dec  4 19:55:36 2003
@@ -230,8 +230,35 @@ currently empty), and false otherwise.
 =cut
 
 sub node_exists {
+    my ($self, $node) = @_;
+
+    croak "No valid node name supplied" unless $node;
+
+    my $dbh = $self->dbh;
+    my $node_table = $self->{_table_prefix} . "node"; 
+
+    my $sql = "SELECT version FROM $node_table
+               WHERE name=" . $dbh->quote($node);
+
+    my @results = $dbh->selectrow_array($sql);
+    @results = (0) unless scalar @results;
+
+    return $results[0] > 0;
+}
+
+=item B<node_version>
+
+  my $version = $store->node_version( "Wombat Defenestration" );
+  # do something based on the version of the node
+
+Returns the version number of the node. If the node has never
+existed, then 0 will be returned.
+
+=cut
+
+sub node_version {
     my ( $self, $node ) = @_;
-    my %data = $self->retrieve_node($node) or return ();
+    my %data = $self->_retrieve_node_content( name => $node ) or return ();
     return $data{version}; # will be 0 if node doesn't exist, >=1 otherwise
 }
 
diff -pubr CGI-Wiki-Knew/lib/CGI/Wiki.pm CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/lib/CGI/Wiki.pm
--- CGI-Wiki-Knew/lib/CGI/Wiki.pm	Mon Nov 24 20:48:55 2003
+++ CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/lib/CGI/Wiki.pm	Thu Dec  4 19:55:36 2003
@@ -402,6 +402,21 @@ sub node_exists {
     $self->store->node_exists( @args );
 }
 
+=item B<node_version>
+
+  my $version = $wiki->node_version( "Wombat Defenestration" );
+  # do something based on the version of the node
+
+Returns the version number of the node. If the node has never
+existed, then 0 will be returned.
+
+=cut
+
+sub node_version {
+    my ($self, @args) = @_;
+    $self->store->node_version( @args );
+}
+
 =item B<delete_node>
 
   $wiki->delete_node($node);
diff -pubr /dev/null CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/t/016_node_version.t
--- /dev/null   Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
+++ CGI-Wiki-Knew-node_exists/t/016_node_version.t   Thu Dec  4 19:14:58 2003
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+use strict;
+use CGI::Wiki::TestLib;
+use Test::More tests => ( 5 * scalar @CGI::Wiki::TestLib::wiki_info );
+use Time::Piece;
+
+my $iterator = CGI::Wiki::TestLib->new_wiki_maker;
+
+while ( my $wiki = $iterator->new_wiki ) {
+    # Node doesn't exist yet
+    is( $wiki->node_version("Home"), 0,
+        "...version number is 0 before node creation" );
+
+    # Put some test data in.
+    $wiki->write_node( "Home", "This is the home node." )
+      or die "Couldn't write node";
+
+    # Test initial version number
+    is( $wiki->node_version("Home"), 1,
+        "...version number retrieved successfully after initial write" );
+
+    # Update the node
+    my %node_data = $wiki->retrieve_node("Home");
+
+    ok( $wiki->write_node("Home", "xx", $node_data{checksum}),
+        "write_node succeeds when node matches checksum" );
+
+    # Test updated version number
+    is( $wiki->node_version("Home"), 2,
+        "...version number retrieved successfully after node update" );
+
+    # Delete the node.
+    $wiki->delete_node("Home");
+
+    # Version number is now 0
+    is( $wiki->node_version("Home"), 0,
+        "...version number is 0 after node delete" );
+}