protected static function prepareAttributes($attributes)
    {
        $prepared = array();
        if (is_string($attributes)) {
            return self::parseAttributes($attributes);

        } elseif (is_array($attributes)) {
            foreach ($attributes as $key => $value) {
                if (is_int($key)) {
                    $key = strtolower($value);
                    $prepared[$key] = $key;
                } else {
                    $prepared[strtolower($key)] = (string)$value;
                }
            }
        }
        return $prepared;
    }