composerList = self.iface.activeComposers()
if(len(composerList) < 1):
      return

composerView = composerList[0]
composition = composerView.composition()
if(composition is None):
      return

for item in composition.selectedComposerItems():
//Need to check for QgsComposerLabel type and update the text.

for item in composition.selectedComposerItems():
    try:
        item.__class__ = qgis.core.QgsComposerLabel
        if item.displayText() == "$NAME$":
            print "I found one"
            item.setText("Hello World")
    except:
        print "Fail"

type(item).__name__

try:
            #print item.id
            if item.id()=="build_id":
            print "found id"
            item.setText(current_gid)
        except:
            print "Fail"